PITTSBURGH – Fifteen Chinese citizens conspired to take college entrance exams on behalf of others or paid to have that done for them so they could obtain student visas, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The newly unsealed indictment contends the alleged conspirators scammed tests run by Educational Testing Service and the College Board — such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT.
The alleged scheme involves test-takers and students who benefited from tests administered since 2011. Investigators weren’t saying which, or how many, schools the students may have entered fraudulently.
Six named in the indictment were identified as students who paid up to $6,000 to have others charged take the tests. Five defendants were test-takers, including Han Tong, 24, who flew to California from Pittsburgh to take an SAT test for one person, the indictment says.