A father who had plead guilty in December 2021 to wire fraud and honest services wire fraud after paying a person to bribe a test administrator to help his son cheat on the ACT standardized test was sentenced to prison in federal court on Wednesday in Boston, according to CBS Boston affiliate WBZ-TV.
I-Hsin "Joey" Chen, 67, of Newport Beach, California was sentenced to nine weeks in prison, one year of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and had to pay a $75,000 fine.
Chen is the 35th parent to be sentenced in the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts.
"Chen conspired with William 'Rick' Singer and others to defraud ACT, Inc. by agreeing to cheat on his son's ACT exam," the Department of Justice release said.
"Specifically, in early 2018, after hiring Singer as a college counselor for his son and agreeing to the testing scheme, Chen got approval for his son to receive multiple day testing accommodations through his son’s high school counselor."
Chen then got his son's testing location to be moved, and had the test administrator allow the test proctor "to secretly correct Chen's son's ACT exam answers to obtain a fraudulently inflated score."
Chen covered up the $75,000 payment to Singer by pretending it was a business consulting fee paid between the two men's companies.
Mark Riddell, the test proctor, was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of supervised release on April 8. He also had to pay a $1,000 fine and forfeit $239,449 for his role in the scandal.
While Singer and Igor Dvorskiy, the test administrator, have already plead guilty and are still waiting on their sentences.
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