The US Government cracks down on illegal 'ghost' schools run by 3 Koreans in Los Angeles

U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura from the Federal Government

In the book I wrote: "New York City Sucks, but You'll Want to Come Here Anyway" I wrote about 'ghost' schools or F-1 Visa schools in New York City. http://www.amazon.com/York-Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

This is a type of (illegal) place where foreign students pay money to get an F-1 student visa, but they don't have to go to classes. These are places which call themselves schools, but which are not really schools.  They are able to do the paper work to give students an F-1 student visa and students can stay in the USA and enjoy themselves. They have to pay the 'ghost' schools, but the amount is less than what they would pay for a real school.

Some students I have worked with in the past have attended 'ghost' schools in New York City. There is a government agency called The New York State Education Department which is supposed to investigate 'ghost' schools, but my students have told me NYSED sucks and doesn't care. Indeed, NY state is one of the most corrupt (dishonest) states in the USA and there are lots of people in positions of power who simply don't care about doing proper investigations. 

Someone told me that NYSED gets much of its funding money by fees the schools it investigates pays to them. So if they close down these schools, they receive less funding money. Some of my students have told me that NYSED will give a 'school' notice that it will be investigated on a certain day. So on this day people actually show up and pretend to be students. After this day, nobody shows up.

So thank goodness the Federal Government cares. They shut down some ghost schools in Los Angeles. These fake schools were being run by some Koreans who were making millions of dollars illegally. They need to come to New York City.

Here is an article from the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-feds-allege-sweeping-immigration-fraud-in-la-trade-schools-20150311-story.html

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

to crack down on something - to take forceful action to stop something

feds - investigators from the federal government - Washington D.C. There are 50 states with state governments and one federal government in Washington D.C. with power over the states.

to allege - to claim, to assert, to state that something is true

fraud - illegal activity in which money is stolen

trade schools - these are schools which teach skills, including languages

to arrest - when the police believe a person has committed a crime and they take him/her in to the police station to charge the person with a crime (to formally accuse a person of having done something wrong). The person then has to go to trial in a courtroom.

a scam - an illegal activity

foreign nationals - people from foreign countries.

to tap, tapped - to tap something or tap into something means to reach something or gain access to something

booming - increasing

suspects - the people who were believed to be running the ghost schools

an indictment - pronounced in DITE ment, when the court system agrees that there is enough evidence for a person who has been arrested to go to jail. A 21 count indictment means the court believes the people arrested should be charged with 21 crimes.

a federal grand jury - this is a collection of citizens who determine whether there is enough evidence for the people accused of the crimes to go to a trial in a court room.

to enroll - to take in as students

abused their responsibility - they acted illegally, they were not responsible

to ensure - to make sure

legitimate - lawful, those who follow the law

integrity - honesty

arraigned - another legal term meaning they'll go before a judge and say whether they want a trial or they want to say they are guilty

money laundering - a legal term for a type of crime where money is hidden or not reported properly

the culmination - the final result

The key to the scam was an immigration document that allows shows - this doesn't make sense, remove "shows" for this sentence in the article to work.  Someone didn't edit this article very well.

to fake something - to make something seem real when it isn't

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