Bail Set for Suspect in Test-Cheating Scam
A federal judge set bail Friday at $100,000 for an Arcadia man accused of setting up a cross-country cheating ring that took advantage of time zone difference to supply answers to graduateschool entrance exams.
U.S. Magistrate Rosalyn Chapman also ordered Po Chieng Ma, 45, to surrender his Taiwanese passport and submit to pretrial supervision. Ma also revealed that the name listed in the complaint--George Kobayashi--was a pseudonym.
Federal officials have accused Ma of fraud. The complaint alleges that he dispatched expert test-takers to New York who phoned the answers to Los Angeles, where the same test would be taken three hours later. The answers were written on examination pencils.
As a condition of bail, Chapman also stipulated that Ma “absolutely cannot engage in preparing any students to take tests.”
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