Federal authorities arrested three Los Angeles area residents Wednesday for allegedly running a multi-million dollar ‘pay to stay’ visa fraud scheme that let foreign nationals stay in the U.S. by “attending” vocational schools without attending classes.
The four schools were based in the L.A. area but almost all the students lived elsewhere. The investigation found that many were living as far away as Hawaii, Texas and Washington. When investigators visited one of the schools, they found only one student attending a class when records indicated the college had 300 students.