It&#39;s a federal crime to pay someone to do your kid&#39;s homework?
<p>I read a news article today that announced that <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/education/2020/07/15/mom-gets-5-weeks-in-prison-for-sons-online-class-cheating" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a mother who paid a third party to take classes in lieu of her son got sentenced to prison</a>. I assume this is a federal case because in previous news reports about the same investigation, it was described as an FBI project.</p>
<p>The story, however, does not say what the mother was charged with. What exactly was the crime for which she is going to prison? The ubiquitous &quot;wire fraud&quot;?</p>

<p>The article actually does say what she was charged with:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Newport Beach, California, woman pleaded guilty in January to a count of <strong>conspiracy to commit wire fraud</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Searching for &quot;US v Littlefair&quot; quickly turned up a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme" rel="noreferrer">DoJ site</a> with a link to the relevant <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/page/file/1224566/download" rel="noreferrer">plea agreement and charging document</a>.  This confirms that the charge was that Littlefair</p>
<blockquote>
<p>conspired [...] to commit wire fraud [...] in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.  All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343" rel="noreferrer">18 USC 1343</a> is the general wire fraud statute, and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1349" rel="noreferrer">18 USC 1349</a> covers conspiracies.</p>

united-states