Wisconsin engineering professor admits to bilking foreign students out of $1.2 million via phony tuition scheme

Troy Liu, 41, admitted that between 2016 and 2020 he talked 20 students and visiting professors from China to wire his company tens of thousands of dollars to pay their tuition and pocketed their money.

But prosecutors said that because the graduate students and professors were working as research assistants at the school, their tuition had been waived. Liu, instead, kept the money and used it to make investments and pay off his credit-card bills. 

In all, prosecutors say Liu took in more than $1.1 million through the scheme.

When confronted by investigators about why he had done it, Liu, according to a plea agreement, allegedly told them: “That’s the difference between China and the U.S. … You don’t know the culture of China. That’s the reason why this business exists.”

Liu’s lawyer declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Liu — who was also known as Yue Liu — set up a company in 2016 called the UW International Education Foundation. He would then approach students in China saying he could make all the arrangements for them to study at the University of Wisconsin.

In letters written on phony letterhead made to look as if it had come from the university, Liu often signed off as Ian Wyatt, telling investigators that “Chinese students would not trust it if a Chinese name was listed,” according to the plea agreement.  

Liu would then tell them and their families to send the tuition money to him and he would forward it to the school. Liu’s company, however, had no arrangement with the school, and he simply kept the money for himself, prosecutors said.

Some of the students would later discover from other graduate students in Milwaukee that their tuition should have been waived as they were working as research assistants. 

Liu joined the faculty at the university in 2009. He is no longer employed there, the school said.

Liu faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud.