President of ‘Sham’ College Is Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison
The head of what officials have called a “sham university” that issued foreigners visa-related documents in exchange for tuition and fees has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for running the scam, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Susan Xiao-Ping Su, president and chief executive of Tri-Valley University, was convicted this year of 31 counts of fraud, harboring undocumented immigrants, and other charges.
The California-based university was raided by federal agents in January 2011. The government said that the college did not require students to attend class and that Ms. Su had collected millions of dollars in tuition from students eager to live and work in the United States on student visas.
A 2011 Chronicle investigation found that Tri-Valley was just the tip of the iceberg, and that similar colleges flourished in other states—especially in California and Virginia, where regulations were lax.