PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A federal grand jury recently indicted 15 Chinese nationals for allegedly operating an elaborate conspiracy to cheat college entrance exams to illegally obtain student visas.

An indictment released this week reveals the alleged perpetrators used fake Chinese passports to allow imposters to take student SAT and college admissions tests as a means of securing F-1 student visas over the last four years, Time and KDKA Pittsburgh report.

A federal grand jury issued the indictment May 21.

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“A test-taker using a phony passport misrepresents themselves as someone else and they take the test, and when the test score is obtained, the student can gain admission to an American institution of higher education,” U.S. Attorney David Hickton told KDKA.

“And then, because of that under the visa rules, they can get an F-1 visa that allows them to stay here,” he said.

Hickton would not disclose which schools were affected by the scam.

KDKA noted that most of the men were in their 20s and lived in Pittsburgh, but Hickton would only confirm that “great educational institutions in this region and around the country have been victimized.”

“We’ve uncovered this scheme here, but this is the beginning of a larger investigation,” he said, adding that colleges across the country could have been duped.

“What I can say is that passports which appear to be issued by the People’s Republic of China are fake,” Hickton said. “How that happened will be determined by the balance of the investigation.”

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Hickton told KDKA one of the men is in custody and three are believed to be in China.

“These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” Philadelphia-based Homeland Security agent John Kelleghan told Time. “HSI will continue to protect our nation’s borders and work with our federal law enforcement partners to seek out those committing transnational crimes and bring them to justice.”

The men face a total of 35 charges, including counts of conspiracy, counterfeiting foreign passports, defrauding the Educational Testing Services and other crimes. They could face up to 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines, according to Time.

According to the Associated Press:

Siyuan Zhao, 24, of Revere, Massachusetts, one of the students who allegedly benefited from the scheme, was arrested Thursday in Boston and prosecutors planned to ask a magistrate to jail him at least until he can be brought to Pittsburgh. Tong and the 10 others whose names were publicized were being mailed summonses to appear in court soon.

The case prompted some interesting reactions on Facebook.

“Deport their asses,” Nick Tomallo suggested.

“Send them back,” Stacie Schearer added. Bernie Schaefer also voted to “deport.”

Rob Morgan, however, thinks the alleged crimes deserve a much more severe punishment.

“What’s deporting them going to do? How is that going to make people not do this?” he questioned.

“Send them to jail for the rest of their lives, that’s how to stop them doing this,” Morgan added. “Then talk to the Chinese government and put some sanctions in place.”