| Type | Unaccredited private university |
|---|---|
| Active | 2008–2011 |
| President | Susan Xiao-Ping Su [1] |
| Location | , , United States 37°40′19″N121°51′49″W / 37.67199°N 121.86372°W |
| Website | www |
Tri-Valley University (TVU) was an unaccredited private university in Pleasanton, California. It was shut down after being raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to possible visa fraud.
The institution was investigated by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department for allegedly operating as a front for illegal immigration. [2] The ICE claims the school issued F-1 visas to students who lived outside California. [3] From May 2009 to May 2010, the school went from having 11 students with F1 visas to 939 students with F1 visas. The number went to 1555 in December 2010. 89 percent of the students were from India. [4] Students paid up to $2,700 per semester for tuition. Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security claims students who were enrolled were paid if they referred another student to the school. [5] Susan Su, operator of the school specifically blamed two student workers, one of whom runs a consulting company, for operating the visa fraud scheme. [6] The school was shut down after a raid by ICE on January 19, 2011. The US Attorney filed suit to forfeit five properties owned by Susan Su relating to the school. [7]
Foreign students, mostly from India, were interrogated by the ICE. Some were radio-tagged to monitor their movements, a move the Indian government protested as treating the students who had been tricked by TVU's promoters like common criminals. [8] ICE set up a web page for former TVU students, instructing them to call SEVP to discuss the students' options. [9]
In March 2011, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an investigation into the practices of TVU and other American for-profit higher education institutions that are virtually unknown within the United States, lack accreditation, and specialize in enrolling foreign students. [10]
On May 2, 2011, TVU's founder and owner, Susan Su, was arrested on indictments by a Federal Grand Jury on 33 counts. [11] [12] Later that year, four students who worked in campus jobs offered by the TVU president were charged in relation to the same case. [13]
On July 11, 2014, one student was sentenced to 30 days' probation, another to one day's probation, another to six months' probation and a $2,000 fine, and the fourth student to three years' probation with 200 hours of community service. About three months later, Su was sentenced to 16 years in prison, forfeiture of $5.6 million, and over $900,000 restitution. [14] [15]
While the case against Su was pending, she was listed as president of a new unaccredited university called Global TV University, based in the same office complex where TVU was located. [16] The state's attorney general denied the application for a new university at that site, citing, among other issues, the use of a proxy in the application. [17]
On March 24, 2014, Su was found guilty on 31 counts in the federal case against her. [18] Prosecutors said Su netted $5.9 million through mail fraud, visa fraud and money laundering and used the money to buy luxury cars and real estate. [19] Su's appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit was denied as were her appeals to the US Supreme Court. [20] [21]
The university started operating in 2008. They were able to operate under a religious exemption from California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education. However, that ended in 2010 when California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education handled these issues. The university did file for a religious exemption but the request was denied. As a result, the school could no longer accept new students starting in January 2010. The school was certified by Department of Homeland Security to offer F1 Visas. One rule to qualify for issuing student visas is that the school's credits be accepted by three different established universities. However, a review of the affidavits' files found two of the schools did not accept credits offered by the university, which started the investigation. Several students were interrogated throughout the investigation. [22]
Saint Regis University sometimes styled as St. Regis University was a diploma mill operation that was one of about 120 connected institutions operated by an American fraud ring from about 1999 until 2005, when it was shut down by U.S. government authorities. The operation was known as "Operation Gold Seal".
The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and Reading, Berkshire.
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are some cases in which those married do not intend to live together as a couple, and typically got married only for one of them to gain the right to reside in a country, meaning a marriage of benefit.
Morris Brown College (MBC) is a private Methodist historically black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded January 5, 1881, Morris Brown is the first educational institution in Georgia to be owned and operated entirely by African Americans.
A sham marriage or fake marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into without intending to create a real marital relationship. This is usually for the purpose of gaining an advantage from the marriage.
In the United States, Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 status who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for one academic year are permitted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education. Foreign students currently enrolled at a U.S. university can receive full-time or part-time work authorization through Curricular Practical Training. In 2022, there were 171,635 OPT employment authorizations. In 2021, there were 115,651 new non-STEM OPT authorizations, a 105% increase from a decade ago.
Thomas James Kirk II operated several fraudulent higher education organizations, including LaSalle University in Mandeville, Louisiana, the University of San Gabriel Valley, and Bienville University. Kirk's "LaSalle University" was shut down in 1996 following a raid by the FBI. Kirk was indicted for tax fraud in 1996 and, after a plea agreement, was sentenced to five years in U.S. federal prison. Kirk later died in January 2008.
The name Warnborough is associated with several related institutions of higher education existing from 1973 to the present, including Warnborough College Oxford, Warnborough College UK, Warnborough College Ireland and Warnborough University, some of which are no longer in operation. Warnborough College UK provides educational programmes both on-site in Canterbury, England, and by distance learning. Warnborough College Ireland offers distance-learning programmes from Ireland. Warnborough College has been the subject of multiple controveries relating to misrepresentation, education quality, legal and tax troubles, and eligibility to participate in government financial assistance.
Amador Valley High School is a comprehensive public high school in Pleasanton, California. It is one of three high schools in the Pleasanton Unified School District, along with Foothill High School and Village High School.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
Diploma mills in the United States are organizations that award academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without academic approval by officially recognized educational accrediting bodies or qualified government agencies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.
In the United Kingdom a bogus college is a fake college or university used as part of an immigration and visa scam, whereby people from overseas can apply for a British student visa and illegally reside in the United Kingdom. They have also been set up as a money making scam, selling fake qualifications which have no official accreditation, often at the taxpayer's expense.
Visa fraud has different criteria in various parts of the world but the commonly accepted points are the sale, provision, or transfer of otherwise legitimate visas, misrepresentation of reasons for traveling and forgery or alteration of a visa.
Herguan University was a private, unaccredited, university and alleged visa mill in Sunnyvale, California operated by Dr. Ying Qiu Wang. As of 2019, its domain names herguanuniversity.edu and herguanuniversity.org appear to be abandoned.
The Management Institute of Canada or Institut Canadien de Management (MIC) is a Canadian professional school based in Montreal, authorized by the government of Quebec. MIC is an unaccredited non-degree business school in Quebec, offering online programs in business administration.
The University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ) was a fake university created and maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016 to investigate student visa fraud. It claimed to be based in Cranford, New Jersey, with plans to expand to Harrison, Hoboken, and Morristown.
Washington University of Barbados (WUB) is a defunct medical school which opened in 2017 and closed the following year. The for-profit university received a charter from the Barbados Ministry of Education in 2016, but was unaccredited. Allegedly part of an international scam in which 200 students from India were conned out of ₹25 crore, the CEO and director of the school were arrested by the Royal Barbados Police and charged with fraud in 2018.
The University of Farmington was a fake university set up in 2015 in Michigan by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to expose student visa fraud in the United States. The sting operation, which was code-named "Paper Chase", was overseen by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Over 600 individuals were identified in the operation, many of whom face deportation from the United States for visa violations.
