Windham Woman Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Taiwanese Exchange Students

PORTLAND, Maine:  A Windham woman waived indictment and pleaded guilty today in federal court to two counts of wire fraud stemming from her scheme to defraud Taiwanese exchange students studying in Maine, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

According to court records, between September 2016 and December 2019, Ni Ni Chang, 50, hosted two Taiwanese exchange students seeking to study abroad in Maine at the University of Southern Maine and Windham Christian Academy. Prior to 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.

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