Man charged in sweeping student visa fraud case
Eamonn Daniel Higgins spent seven years attending college.
Between 2002 and 2009, he attended 10 different schools in Southern California, including Cal State Los Angeles, Irvine Valley College and Santa Monica College, according to federal prosecutors. During that time, he studied sociology, marketing, English, business and math.
The problem was that Higgins hadn’t registered for any of the courses, authorities said. Rather, dozens of foreign students -- mostly from the Middle East -- were paying him to sit in class, take exams and write papers for them so their student visas would remain valid, according to a charging document filed in the case. Students paid up to $1,500 for course assignments and finals and up to $1,000 for English and writing proficiency exams, the document said.
Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the demand was so great that he hired employees, including a blond woman who they believe posed as an Middle Eastern man to take a test. Agents are continuing to investigate the case and believe Higgins had several co-conspirators.
On Monday, Higgins, 46, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Santa Ana to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. During the brief hearing, Higgins told the judge he wasn’t working. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.
1 comment:
Debbie Schlussel also has a thread about student visa fraud:
Student Visa Fraud Ring: How Many From Syria, Turkey Disappeared in US?
Quote: "Two more Americans sold out their country–and thankfully got caught by sharp ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, who investigated and arrested them. It’s called “Operation Class Dismissed,” ICE’s largest bust of student visa fraud ever. Good job, ICE agents.
Lydia Menocal and Ofelia Macia ran the Miami-based Florida Language Institute, which was mostly a phony school, designed to make money by providing foreigners phony student visas and making $2.4 million from the scam. They did this for 600 foreign national aliens, only five percent of whom were actually legitimate students. The rest never showed up to the school and were only “enrolled” so they could enter and stay in the U.S. to do who knows what. Read the indictment. And note the blonde chick stock photo, above, the phony school used on its website. Whatta crock. How many blonde chicks are named Mohammed and Manuel?"
One wonders if Lydia is any relation to the ever imaginative 'ME scholar', Maria Rosa Menocal, whose OIC approved whitewashed fantasy of Islamic hegemony under the guise of the golden age of al-Andalus dominates university MESA departments across our fair land.
Menocal = fraud
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