United States Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced that two individuals, including a Chinese national, were sentenced for wire fraud in a scheme to falsify education credentials to obtain massage therapy licenses. Yongbo Shen, a/k/a Kevin Shen, age 49, who is originally from China and currently from Massachusetts, was sentenced to serve 15 months in prison for his role as the leader of the scheme. Co-defendant Marla Daniels, age 51, of Oklahoma City, was sentenced to serve 3 years of probation, including 8 months of home detention. According to court documents, between February 16, 2015, and March 3, 2018, Shen and Daniels fraudulently obtained the questions and answers to the exam that Colorado requires for applicants to become a massage therapist. With the help of others, Shen then caused the questions and answers to be translated from English to Chinese — essentially creating an unauthorized question and answer key — or cheat sheet — for the examination. As part of the scheme, Shen then distributed the cheat sheet to multiple applicants in exchange for a fee. This allowed otherwise unqualified applicants to pass the test and provided them with an unfair competitive advantage over other persons taking the test. Daniels and Shen also created and issued multiple bogus diplomas, which falsely certified that certain applicants for the state license had successfully completed the requisite 500 hours of instruction and training from a massage therapy program and had graduated from the Majestic Massage Therapy school. As part of the fraud, Shen worked with Daniels to help create and falsify course transcripts and diplomas.
