Feds bust cheating ring that took English tests for Chinese students

LOS ANGELES — Six people were busted by the feds on March 12—the same day Operation Varsity Blues captivated headlines—for allegedly helping Chinese students land US student visas by cheating on English proficiency tests. According to prosecutors, the suspects posed as the prospective students so they could take their TOEFL tests—an English proficiency exam— at different locations around the City of Angels. According to L.A. Magazine, Beijing-born and former UCLA Bruin Liu Cai was arrested by feds on suspicion of facilitating an international cheating ring. Prosecutors say Cai, along with four current and former UCLA students and another student at Cal State Fullerton, helped at least 40 Chinese students obtain student visas. The suspects would show up at the testing sites with fake Chinese passports bearing their own pictures but the names of the actual Chinese students. Cai allegedly paid three of the other test-takers $400 per exam. Cai almost Fast & Furioused the thing, but then he Dumb & Dumbered it by charging 39 test registration payments to his credit card, which is surprisingly how authorities tracked him down. The students that cheated on the TOEFL tests subsequently were accepted into universities including Columbia, NYU and UCLA. Officials say many of the cheating students weren't able to hack it and didn't graduate. Cai and his co-defendants were charged with conspiring to use false passports, using false passports and aggravated identity theft. All have pleaded not guilty. Yeah, why not? Maybe Cai and his friends just really like taking English proficiency exams.