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Federal court documents show Susan Xiao-Ping Su, the founder of Tri-Valley University and owner of two homes in Pleasanton, has been charged with money laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud.
The university — apparently operated out of a small, two-story office space on Boulder Court — and the two houses were part of a raid last week by federal officials from ICE, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division of Homeland Security.
Court documents claim that Su ran an “elaborate fraud scheme” that netted millions of dollars from foreign nationals who hoped to become legal immigrants.
Su “made false statements and misrepresentations in petitions to DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) to obtain student visas from the government,” according to charges filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Oakland. “Su and Tri-Valley University have made millions of dollars in tuition fees for issuing these visa related documents which enable foreign nationals (to) obtain illegal student immigrant status.”
The document says Su used profits from her scam to buy five properties, including the two homes in Pleasanton raided by ICE last week — at 2890 Victoria Ridge Court and 1371 Germano Way.
Although on its website the university claims faculty members from prominent businesses and other universities, Tri-Valley University was never an accredited university, according to federal documents.
Doors at Tri-Valley University remain locked, and calls to its single phone number remain unanswered; black plastic bags shroud the second-story windows of the office suite.
A search of the school’s online catalog — with a long list of spelling and grammatical errors — shows the university claims to offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in everything from engineering to law to medicine.
The college catalog claims the campus “feature a state-of-art library, faculty-student lodge administrative offices and classrooms (and) research labs.”
The school’s catalog, however, shows many of its classes being held in the same rooms and at the same time.
Questions about the university have been circulating since at least last September, when a comment was posted on a consumer website that the school was not accredited.
A message from Su on the Tri-Valley University website says “programs at Tri-Valley University are designated with the key of integration: integration of Christian faith with academics, academic principles with industry practical application, integration of career pursuit with spiritual growth.”
A hearing has been set for April.
We should all be grateful a consumer website first tipped off the ‘school’ was not accredited. What a fabulous tipoff from that individual, and the website. What a public service. I wonder what site it was…I’d like to be a participant. Communities must be alert, and not tolerate any violations creeping in…where there’s smoke there is often fire. Web sites that allow ALL thoughts, observations, and concerns (the Thomas Jefferson concept of freedom of speech ) as SO much more valuable than sites that censor factual information….and consider phony political correctness is the priority ! ‘eh Gina
Her resume is online on the website for the tri-valley university.
How could Berkeley graduate someone with poor English skills? Berkeley is supposed to be a good university, and while this lady’s degree was in Engineering, that is no excuse to let someone graduate without having mastered basic English skills!
Throw the book at her! She’s a disgrace to Pleasanton, the Tri-Valley, the Eastbay, and beyond! Hats off to the Feds for actually getting it right! Keep finding these scuzzy characters!
With fraud skills that good, you’d think she went to one of America’s premier business schools.
Put her in Jail, she doesn’t deserve to profit and run a “Fake” University and mess with people, especially trying to bring “Illegal” people here! We already have too many illegals here!
Conducts of Ms. Su and Tri-Valley University have nothing to do with Christian belief. Publishers of this article, please remove the related quotation from their website. Thx.
Damn Chi-Coms.
What happens to the houses and all that money?
Is this a Chinese Ponzi Scheme?
As for graduating from Berkeley and not writing English correctly – easy. I worked at LLNL with a man who graduated from Berkeley with a 4.0 – he could not write a single sentence without a grammatical error or spelling mistake. His task – to write a synopsis of the function he wrote. I asked. “Oh, I did my GEs including English at Chabot. Berkeley doesn’t count any of the transferred credits in my grade point average.” I have no idea if that has changed – this was about 1986.
My bachelor’s is from another country – no GE’s required. However, the tests were essay so you had better know the language. English is my poorest subject.
As for the Feds closing in – Wonderful! There is no way this town has a university – college may be. Yes, there is a difference.
I like the part about the curriculum being integrated with christian belief. One fraud stacked atop another. I wonder if the feds have looked at Oral Roberts, Liberty, and the host of other evangelical ‘schools’ that systematically brainwash their students by injecting god into any and all curricular matters?
I don’t know if Chris is as far off the mark as you in your scolding tone suggest there, MainStreetDiva. The article specifically states that “Christian belief” was tied up with the school’s academics and job-training. Do you care to monitor my freedom of expression too?
It is not against the law not to be accredited, buyer beware. This is an ICE investigation, Homeland Security. I imagine they has them under investigation because of the falsified applications for student visas.
Did a google, and found this forum posts
http://www.trackitt.com/usa-discussion-forums/h1b/512950847/tri-valley-university-cpt-opt
Perhaps her resume with the Berkeley degree is fraudulent? Thank you for making me feel like a genius.
Absolutely Berkeley and any other university you care to name are graduating students who can’t speak or write correct English. The almighty non-resident tuition dollar and “diversity” trump everything. And as for engineering students, they’re dreaming if they think it doesn’t matter. At least where I work, if we peer review something written in bad English, there’s no way we’ll approve it and we send it back for corrections.
One needs to find out if there aren’t any tunnels beneath this building and other Chinese businesses harboring illegals. Downtown Pleasanton was litter will underground tunnels from past Chinese immigrants/workers. This needs to be investigated, as far as I’m concerned. Someone needs to get on this and for that matter, check out Muslim establishments, too. Find out if tunnels are being built to harbor illegals.
“At least where I work, if we peer review something written in bad English, there’s no way we’ll approve it and we send it back for corrections.”
Yes, but most of the high value add engineering work is going to China anyway, so there more important question is how good is her Chinese?
Yes, and I wonder how proficient any of you are in the Chinese language or any other language, for that matter. And I won’t comment on the startlingly horrid grasp of English exemplified by so many of the contributors to this and other threads.
You folks positively slay me. Just a little bit of fear of foreigners is it? What a bunch of frightened wee ninnies you sound like. Afraid they’ll work harder than you, or outperform your kids in school? Afraid they’ll put you to shame by learning your language and then outcompeting you on every level? I imagine so….
It’s hard to believe that it is anything but right-wingers tearing their hair out over this. Always needing to scapegoat some diverse other who looks or sounds different than you. In another era, you’d have been forming mobs in order to enact the Chinese Exclusion Acts; you’d have been screaming for the incarceration of Japanese-Americans; you’d have been lathered up in a mob mentality at the prospects of African-Americans moving north or west; you’d have been backing George Wallace’s efforts to protect his good southern-white schools from little black kids; and I imagine today most of you fantasize hunting Latinos along the southwest borderlands.
You’re so blinded by hatred, fear and prejudice that you can’t even seem to grasp the contradiction that exists in your free market ideology and your hatred of newly arrived immigrants. Free markets means free markets. It means free trade within and across borders. It means free trade of goods and free trade of labor across borders. But you’re too blinded to recognize the contradiction you live with. No, in this instance, you want big daddy government to protect you and your children by spending billions and billions on thousands of border patrol agents who sit in their $65 grand SUV’s and stare at dirt; billions on a wall that is a complete and total farce. Yeah, you guys are real freedom seekers alright. But, unfortunately, you’re too cowardly to admit that your hatred, self-loathing and insecurity eclipses even the ideology you claim to embrace. Pathetic.
Save Our Customs and Culture- tell me you are being facetious.
Wake up ‘Save Our Customs and Culture’!
According to court documents, Ms. Su ran an “elaborate fraud scheme.” If so she was inviolation of Bay area “standards” and Bay area “law,” since anyone who knows anything about Bay area “standards” and “law” relating to frauds and scams would realize that engaging in such is considered illegal unless you are a lawyer or a law firm or a business that makes large election campaign contributions.
When will they be coming to arrest our mayor and city council on fraud charges???
This immigration loophole needs to be tightened up all over the U.S. we don’t need unskilled foreigners taking jobs in our country, period. American born college graduates are having enough competition for jobs without having foreigners with BOGUS visas competing for the same jobs.
We need to get rid of the pregnant tourist visa loopholes too. Citizenship should not be given to the best bribing foreigner… we should only let people become citizens if their parent is a citizen or they have a unique and rare skill that we need (like doctors or computer scientists) with a specific job that they can prove cannot be filled by an American
Everyone else should get in line and no anchor babies
Chris: Please stick to the topic of Tri-Valley University and Ms. Su, and try to resist the temptation of dragging unrelated religious schools into the discussion.
Jane-? Really? “Just a little bit of fear of foreigners is it? Afraid they’ll put you to shame by learning your language and then outcompeting you on every level?”
It’s not foreigners at issue with this bogus university, it’s illegals using phony visas. I guess you’re OK with that as long as it promotes your version of utopia, which includes diversity of criminal elements regardless as to cost to the law abiding majority of our society. In your world, the ends justify the means….these poor unfortunate dupes trying to better themselves at the expense of everyone else already here playing by the rules, working hard and yes, speaking English.
Good thing this was a Chinese criminal perpetrating this fraud instead of those God-fearing evil white folks, eh Jane?