Herguan University in Sunnyvale, photographed on July 5, 2011. On Thursday, the federal government revoked its ability to enroll foreign nationals — a year and a half after its former CEO pleaded guilty to visa fraud.
Herguan University in Sunnyvale, photographed on July 5, 2011. On Thursday, the federal government revoked its ability to enroll foreign nationals — a year and a half after its former CEO pleaded guilty to visa fraud.

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Herguan University, a Silicon Valley school amongst the most popular with Indian students, has been barred from enrolling or recruiting those requiring F-1 visas by the U.S. government.

Announced Thursday, the move comes a year and a half after former Herguan University chief executive Jerry Wang pleaded guilty in federal court to providing false documents to the Department of Homeland Security.

It additionally means those students attending the university on current F-1 visas have until Jan. 11 to transfer to another school, or leave the country entirely. The school, which offers an MBA program and master’s degrees in computer science, has about 240 international students, 180 of whom are from India, according to an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The state agency charged with overseeing private, for-profit schools, however, said Herguan reported Aug. 1 that it had 90 students.

Herguan‘s president, Doreen Simmons, could not be immediately reached for comment. In an email exchange, she refused to answer questions about the school, including basic information such as its enrollment. “We have real students, real classes, real faculty, real staff, with real accreditation, and excellent outcomes,” she wrote.

The school’s accreditor, Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools — which also oversaw the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute — was stripped of its authority last month by the U.S. Department of Education. A department report found its oversight weak and inconsistent.

The aforementioned Wang served time in a Central Valley prison after pleading guilty in April 2015 in U.S. District Court to submitting more than 100 false documents to the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to skirt the rules for enrolling international students. He agreed to forfeit $700,000 and serve between three months and two years in prison.