Windham Woman Sentenced for Defrauding Taiwanese Exchange Students

PORTLAND, Maine: A Windham woman was sentenced today in federal court for two counts of wire fraud stemming from her scheme to defraud Taiwanese exchange students studying in Maine, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Ni Ni Chang, 51, to five years of probation. She was also ordered to pay $65,524.94 in restitution to the victims. She waived indictment and pleaded guilty on January 14, 2021.

According to court records, between September 2016 and December 2019, Chang hosted two Taiwanese exchange students seeking to study abroad in Maine at the University of Southern Maine and Windham Christian Academy. Prior to and after their arrival, Chang falsely represented the cost of tuition and other educational expenses to the families of these students and pocketed the difference between the actual costs and the wrongfully inflated costs. At sentencing, she acknowledged that her actions had been driven by greed.

Both victims attended the sentencing proceeding remotely from Taiwan, and one of the victims addressed the Court during the Zoom proceeding, expressing her gratitude to the American judicial system for helping her family obtain justice.

Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service investigated the case.