Yi Chen, also identified as Brian Chen, was found guilty in court in Los Angeles and given a four-year prison term and a $450,000 fine and restitution order.
Chen planned the establishment of Prime U.S. International and M.S. Education, two “education admission” businesses that paid Chinese students thousands of dollars for “assured admission” into prestigious U.S. universities and F-1 student visas as part of the five-year fraud.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office claimed in the sentencing memo that Chen generated millions of dollars by fabricating every step of the college admissions procedure while pretending to run an “educational consulting” business.
They continue, “By doing so, Chen sat at the top of a massive network of felons, including forgers of tests, essay-writing ghosts, and sellers of fake transcripts.
Chen hired individuals to pose as prospective students to take the appropriate TOEFL tests and other exams between 2015 and 2021. He also had the fictitious organizations construct application packages with “used or false transcripts.”
Chen then presented the applications with these resources, and one of them led to a student being admitted to NYU.
On March 21 of this year, Chen was found guilty of one charge of visa fraud and one charge of serious identity theft. However, Chen was exonerated on ten counts of visa fraud and one conspiracy charge for falsifying immigration documents.
He was initially detained alongside co-defendant Yixin Li, also known as Eason Li and Calvin Wong, in 2021. Yixin Li later entered a guilty plea and gave evidence during Chen’s trial in March.
Judge Scarsi, who presided, agreed that Chen was the “head of the enterprise” as the CEO and owner of the two businesses, but she rejected the government’s request to “base his punishment on conduct.”
He was revealed to have gotten roughly 25 student visas for his customers that were later determined to be false. Nevertheless, these clients subsequently received acceptance letters from prestigious universities around the nation, including NYU, USC, Boston, and Columbia.
Through an interpreter, Chen apologized and expressed regret for his actions in a statement to the court.
Shaun Khojayan, Chen’s lawyer, said that the defendant is disqualified for imminent release or a minimum-security facility since he is a foreign national.
Judge Scarsi imposed a four-year sentence notwithstanding the defendant’s request for two-year imprisonment.
Julia Hu, one of the prosecution’s attorneys, also described how Chen hired an unknown Hollywood screenwriter to create phony recommendation and admissions letters.
High-name actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman were sentenced to prison due to a domestic fraud that exposed several parents who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure their children’s admission to prestigious U.S. colleges.
Chen and his co-defendant are connected to an earlier allegation involving a “collection of imposter test-takers “; the indictment described how they administered TOEFL tests using phony Chinese passports on behalf of foreigners, as was specified in the initial plot.
In the earlier instance, six offenders participated, and all received probationary sentences after entering guilty pleas. Chen will be extradited from the U.S. after serving his four-year term, and it was also verified.
