Chinese woman to be deported, two others enter guilty pleas

A Chinese woman who paid a ringer to take an English proficiency test pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the federal government, prosecutors said.

Xiaomeng Cheng, 21, was convicted in federal court in Boston on a charge of conspiracy to defraud immigration officials.

Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced Cheng to time served and ordered her immediate deportation to China.

rosecutors said in March 2016 Cheng applied to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language exam, which is used by 9,000 colleges and universities that participate in student exchange and visitor programs in 130 countries.

Although Cheng had taken the exam before and failed, prosecutors said she gave her passport and exam registration information to a woman who used the false documentation to take and pass the test for her.

Based on the results, which Cheng submitted as her own, she was accepted to Arizona State University and received a visa from the Department of Homeland Security that allowed her to remain in the U.S. for the duration of her studies.

Federal prosecutors have also charged Yue Wang, 25, Shikun Zhang, 24, and Leyi Huang, 21, with conspiracy to defraud.

Prosecutors said Wang is the woman who was paid to take the exam.

All four were arrested in May at various locations around the U.S. Wang was attending the Hult International Business School in Cambridge.

According to an affidavit, federal authorities acting on a tip that a person was planning to hire a ringer to take the test located the testtaker, removed her from the exam and questioned her.

The woman told authorities that Wang had been paid to take the test but hired her instead for $100 and promised another $800 if the score was 90 or better.

Feds tracked Wang to her Malden apartment, where she admitted to hiring the woman to complete the test that she had been hired to take. Wang also told authorities she had fraudulently taken the exam on three other occasions, according to the affidavit. She said she had been paid $7,000.

Zhang and Wang have also submitted guilty pleas in exchange for sentences of time served and deportation.

Huang’s case is still open.