15 Chinese Nationals Indicted In Pittsburgh-Area College Test Fraud

Fifteen Chinese nationals are being charged in connection to a fraudulent college test-taking scheme near Pittsburgh which also involved fake passports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Thursday.

The suspects allegedly had imposters take college and graduate school standardized entrance exams, including but not limited to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), U.S. Customs said.

The conspirators allegedly had fake Chinese passports made and sent to the United States, U.S. Customs said, which were then used to trick test administrators into thinking they were other people.

The “majority” of the fraudulent exams were taken in western Pennsylvania, including a testing site in Monroeville, according to investigators.

“These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” said John Kelleghan, Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia special agent in charge. “HSI will continue to protect our nation’s borders and work with our federal law enforcement partners to seek out those committing transnational crimes and bring them to justice.”

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Twelve individuals were identified in the indictment: Han Tong, Xi Fu, Xiaojin Guo, Yudong Zhang, Yue Zou, Biyuan Li (aka “Jack Li”), Jia Song, Ning Wei, Gong Zhang, Songling Peng, Siyuan Zhao and Yunlin Sun. Three more names remain under seal, U.S. Customs said.

The investigation was the result of a joint effort between U.S. Customs, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or both for each count of wire and mail fraud, 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or both for each count of counterfeiting foreign passports, and five years in prison with a fine of $250,000 or both for conspiracy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Kitchen will prosecute the case.

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