Wednesday, April 14, 2010

And a mysterious blonde, posing as a Middle Eastern man

You remember that wacky story about a local “business” that provided college exam takers for about 100 Middle Eastern students, right?

Tonight, OC Weekly’s Matt Coker provides an update:

Eamon Daniel Higgins GUILTY in Foreign Student Visa Fraud
Eamon Daniel Higgins, 46, of Laguna Niguel, pleaded guilty in federal court today to conspiracy for allegedly orchestrating a visa fraud scheme involving dozens of Middle Eastern students enrolled at Southern California colleges and universities, including Irvine Valley College.

Higgins faces up to five years in federal prison at his August sentencing.

He obtained counterfeit California driver's licenses, took tests and exams and attended classes on behalf of students from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar. Co-conspirators helped Higgins with his scheme, including a mysterious blonde who apparently posed as a Middle Eastern man.

Higgins received up to $1,500 to complete final examinations and other classroom work for foreign students, and $1,000 for taking required English proficiency tests, according to court documents based on an eight-month investigation…. (continued)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The relatively sleepy OC Reg now has a story about this here. It also lists the many local colleges where the fraud occurred. Included: Saddleback College and two state Universities.

Anonymous said...

Will this be sent to the supervisors?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...