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Interpol looks for woman who ran elaborate exam cheating scam

Interpol looks for woman who ran elaborate exam cheating scam

Interpol looks for woman who ran elaborate exam cheating scam

Interpol looks for woman who ran elaborate exam cheating scam

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  • Interpol has issued a “red notice” for Poh Yuan Nie.
  • She is wanted in connection with an exam-cheating scheme.
  • Malaysia’s Education Minister Vivianne Tan was sentenced to three years in prison.
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A woman wanted by Interpol is believed to be responsible for a sophisticated exam-cheating scheme in Singapore that entailed taping phones and headphones to students.

Together with three other conspirators, all of whom have since been imprisoned, Poh Yuan Nie, 57, fronted the scheme.

Former local tuition center principal Poh was scheduled to start a four-year sentence in September but failed to turn herself up.

It is believed that she left Singapore.

In November of last year, the city-police state’s department filed an arrest warrant for Poh, also known as Pony. The following month, they submitted the Interpol “red notice” application and made a request for information regarding her whereabouts.

A red notice asks law enforcement authorities all around the world to find and detain a suspect pending extradition or other legal proceedings.

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The fraud occurred over a number of days in October 2016 as three tertiary entrance tests were being taken.

According to the local media, Poh’s Zeus Education Centre was hired to tutor six pupils, ages 17 to 20, so they could pass their examinations and enroll in the polytechnics, the area’s equivalent of a vocational college.

Poh received S$8,000 (£4,900; $6,100) plus S$1,000 in entry fees for each pupil, although the money was totally refundable if they failed.

The students—all citizens of China—sat for the exams in several locations while sporting in-ear headphones that were skin-colored. Poh and her cohorts discreetly hid mobile phones and Bluetooth gadgets under their clothing by taping them to their bodies.

Tan Jia Yan, Poh’s ex-girlfriend who was 30 at the time, also applied as a private candidate. She did this while concealing a camera phone beneath her clothing and taping it to her chest.

Tan livestreamed the papers to Poh, her niece Fiona Poh, and a worker named Feng Riwen using FaceTime as they were waiting at the tuition center.

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The trio then calculated the solutions and transmitted them to the pupils via headphones. One student said, “If I heard them clearly, I should be silent; if not, I should cough.”

When an exam supervisor noticed strange transmission sounds emanating from one of the pupils, who admitted his involvement when questioned, the plan fell apart.

One of the involved students claimed in court that the instructors had forced him to cheat and that he “did not dare” tell them he did not want to take part in it.

On 27 counts of cheating, Poh, her niece, and Feng were found guilty in 2020. Each of them received a sentence of two to four years in prison.

The trio had been asked by the judge to provide testimony in support of themselves, but they choose not to speak. According to the prosecution, a negative inference, including the ultimate inference of guilt, should be made from this.

Tan was sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 for the same offences. District Judge Kenneth Yap stated during her sentencing that it was important to preserve the integrity of national tests.

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“The notion that students can buy [results] by resorting to cheating is offensive. It undermines the principle of meritocracy. It can’t be that the rich can procure exam results,” he said.

Similar high-tech cheating scandals have occurred abroad. In order to cheat on tests, medical students in Thailand were caught utilizing integrated cameras and smartwatches that had data recorded on them in 2016.

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