Chinese woman admits to taking tests for others
Print Edition
A CHINESE citizen who lives in western Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to using phony passports to take English-language tests for college entrance for two other Chinese women.
Sun Yunlin, 24, is one of 15 Chinese citizens indicted last May for their alleged involvement in the scheme.
Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh claim they scammed tests run by Educational Testing Service and the College Board for nearly US$6,000 per exam.
The alleged scheme involved tests administered in Pittsburgh and its suburbs since 2011.
Sun acknowledged taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, in November 2013 for Zou Yue, 20, and again in December 2013 for another Chinese woman identified only as an unnamed co-conspirator.
Zou and her boyfriend and co-defendant, Zhang Yudong, 21, have pleaded not guilty.
Both were still listed on Monday as students on Virginia Tech’s website. Zou is studying finance and Zhang general engineering. Officials haven’t responded to requests for comment on their status or the test-related charges.
Zhang is said to have sent a photocopy of Zou’s passport to a Pittsburgh man, Tong Tan, 24, who pleaded guilty last week to being the central figure in the conspiracy.
Tong, a former University of Pittsburgh student, used a Chinese Internet forum called QQ Chat to contact a China-based business that arranged to have proxies like Sun take several entrance exams.
Assistant US Attorney Jimmy Kitchen told the judge on Monday that Sun provided her photo so it could be used to make fake passports in the name of Zou and the other Chinese woman, which Sun used as her identification when taking the tests.
Zou and the other woman paid the Chinese testing service, which sent some money to Tong, who split it with Sun, Kitchen said. The prosecutor didn’t say how much money was involved in the two tests Sun took, but the indictment indicates some students paid just under US$6,000.
Tong will be sentenced on November 12 and faces potentially decades in prison while Sun, who pleaded guilty only to an umbrella conspiracy charge, faces up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine.
Because they are Chinese citizens, those convicted also face deportation.
Sun is the third person to have pleaded guilty in the scheme.
Last month, Li Biyuan, 25, of Boston, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, acknowledging that he paid to have the Graduate Record Examination taken for him by a proxy who also used a fake passport.
He faces the same penalties as Sun when he is sentenced on October 30.
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