Television
New Zealand went undercover to expose an academic scam, paying $12,000 to get a
business diploma from the NZ Academy of Studies after attending no classes and
doing no course work. Zhiwei Li was
convicted in July 2015 of fraud and sentenced to four months home detention for
his role in the scam.
The court was told Mr Li advertised in
the Auckland Chinese language paper Mandarin
Times offering educational services.
He described himself as a sales rep for NZ Academy. Asked by undercover reporter Chi-Wei Chen how
he could get a tertiary qualification without doing any work, Li brokered a
deal with NZ Academy at a cost of $12,000 with Li himself getting a $3000 cut. Two months after his supposed enrolment, Mr Chen was supplied with a New Zealand
Diploma of Business together with an academic transcript recording a C grade in
each of the twelve course subjects. Mr
Li was unwilling to work the same scam for a non-Chinese, one of Mr Chen’s fellow
journalists, because in Mr Li’s words, this colleague was a “foreigner” and had
“a different way of thinking from Chinese” which could lead to trouble.
Li appealed conviction saying he did not
provide any false tertiary qualifications, NZ Academy was responsible. The Court of Appeal said Li procured NZ
Academy to commit the fraud and that was sufficient to hold him criminally
liable.
Li
v. R. – Court of Appeal (31.05.16)
16.090