HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Former professor pleads guilty to committing over $1 million in fraud.

A former engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has pleaded guilty on charges that involve defrauding foreign students out of money “through materially false promises and representations.”

“Beginning in approximately April 2016 and continuing through at least November 2020,” a Department of Justice press release reads, former engineering professor Yue Liu “devised and executed a scheme to defraud” in which he “fraudulently obtained more than $1.1 million from foreign students and visiting professors.”

“Liu promised foreign students that they would be part of a program run by an entity he controlled, which would pay expenses associated with their studies at UWM, including tuition and other costs,” the press release continues.

Liu created a business entity which he named UW International Education Foundation LLC in 2016, and in 2017 he renamed it Wisconsin International Education LLC, according to the February 2022 plea agreement.

“In reality, there was no such program affiliated with UWM, and UWM waived the students’ tuition because they were research assistants,” the press release states.

“Liu did not use the money from the students to pay their tuition and other expenses. Instead, he used a portion of the money he received for personal purposes, including to fund investment accounts and to pay credit card expenses.”

To be fair, this doesn’t sound that much worse than what universities routinely do in recruiting students and athletes. . . .