A U.S. federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging two California men with helping foreign students obtain admission to U.S. universities and visas by falsifying transcripts and hiring people to write application essays and take standardized tests for them through educational consulting firms. Both defendants have refused to plead guilty.
Yi Chen, 33, and Yixin Li, 28, were charged with conspiracy, visa fraud and grand theft of identity, according to a statement released Monday (March 8) by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department said Chen, of Monrovia, California, and Li, of San Gabriel, contracted with foreign students for thousands of dollars to guarantee their admission to the U.S. universities of their choice.
Federal prosecutors said Chen and Li obtained admissions to universities across the United States, including New York University, Columbia University, Boston University and schools in the University of California system, through two educational consulting firms that submitted transcripts containing falsified test scores, ghostwritten essays and letters of recommendation for their clients, and hired people to take the TOEFL and Standardized Aptitude Test (SAT).
Authorities also said Chen and Li were associated with six people who pleaded guilty in 2019 to using forged Chinese passports to take the TOEFL exam in place of Chinese nationals. All six defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation.
Chen pleaded not guilty Monday to 21 charges brought by a grand jury. His co-defendant, Li, turned himself in on March 2 and denied guilt at his arraignment that afternoon.
The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Justice Department said. The fraud and visa abuse counts carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. If convicted on the charge of grand theft of identity, the law would mandate that the defendant be sentenced to two years in prison. The defendant is presumed innocent until the court rules on the charges.
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