The lead defendant in a scheme by Chinese students to cheat their way into American universities received a probationary term Monday instead of prison and will be deported to China.
Han Tong, 24, a former University of Pittsburgh student, had faced a possible 30 to 37 months in prison, but his lawyer asked for a variance and U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti granted it.
The lawyer, James Brink, and the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment after a sentencing hearing conducted mostly at sidebar. Tong also had no comment.
Judge Conti imposed a three-year term of probation and said it was justified based on the circumstances of the case and Tong’s history. Tong has no other criminal record and has been a “devoted son” and “good friend” who has helped others in “many ways,” the judge said, based on letters his relatives and friends wrote to her.
Tong, who got into Pitt in 2011 by having someone in China take an English test for him, pleaded guilty in the summer to his leadership role in a conspiracy by Chinese students to cheat on college entrance tests. He was the lead defendant of 15 people indicted in Pittsburgh in 2015.
During his plea, he admitted that he either took entrance tests for others or found impostors to take the tests, in each case using fake passports made in China and sent to him at his Oakland apartment.
He was among five test-takers in the scheme, once even flying to California to take an SAT for someone else. He was typically paid $2,000.
Prosecutors said he also acted as a facilitator of the scheme in Pittsburgh. In one case, for example, a female co-conspirator who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University obtained a fake passport sent from a businesswoman in China to Tong in Pittsburgh. The student used the passport in posing as someone else to take an English test in Monroeville in November 2013.
Tong will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.
Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com or 412-944-6551.
First Published: December 5, 2016, 10:28 p.m.
