I read a news article today that announced that a mother who paid a third party to take classes in lieu of her son got sentenced to prison. I assume this is a federal case because in previous news reports about the same investigation, it was described as an FBI project.
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 "wire fraud"?
The article actually does say what she was charged with:
The Newport Beach, California, woman pleaded guilty in January to a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Searching for "US v Littlefair" quickly turned up a DoJ site with a link to the relevant plea agreement and charging document. This confirms that the charge was that Littlefair
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.
18 USC 1343 is the general wire fraud statute, and 18 USC 1349 covers conspiracies.
