Chinese beauty queen Li Si Xuan sentenced to jail for faking Columbia University credentials to enter HKU

CHINA: Chinese beauty queen, Li Si Xuan, is going to jail for faking her qualifications from Columbia University to get into The University of Hong Kong (HKU), according to VnExpress. Based on a report by 8days, the 28-year-old was sentenced to 240 days in jail, reduced from the original 300-day term.

Another 40 days will also be served separately. Her defence lawyer argued for clemency, pointing to her regret and the lack of evidence indicating that the fraudulent documents were used for personal financial advantage. The court found that her acts had no bearing on the admission of any other candidates.

Fake documents

In 2021, Li Si Xuan applied to HKU, and to make her application look good, she said she’d already finished studying linguistics at Columbia University in New York. She even sent in fake documents, like made-up certificates, to back up her claims. And it actually worked – she got into HKU’s Master’s program for Applied Linguistics.

HKU started hearing some reports in 2024 about students possibly using fake documents, so they decided to look into it. And wouldn’t you know it, when they actually checked with Columbia University, they found out that the beauty queen had never even been a student there.

“Pass” to “Distinction”

Besides forging documents and fabricating her undergraduate degree, Li was also caught having altered her Master’s degree certificate. She even tried to make her time at HKU look better than it was! She apparently changed her grade from just a “pass” to a much fancier “distinction.” She even messed with the date of her graduation, saying it was on June 12 when it really happened on June 11.

So, after finding out about all the fake documents and not being able to even talk to Li about it, HKU decided to put an end to it. They kicked her out of the program and then reported the whole thing to the police.

When she finally confessed, Li admitted that she actually graduated from a university in Wuhan back in 2020. She even said she paid a company called “Academic Emperor” to help her get into HKU and get all those fake qualifications.

‘Academic Emperor’ agency

So, it turns out Li shelled out a whopping 380,000 yuan – that’s like 67,000 Singapore dollars! – to this “Academic Emperor” agency. And part of what she paid for was even access to some online course that was supposedly run by Columbia University.

Li entered a guilty plea to two charges: faking her Master’s degree results and forging paperwork to get into HKU. She acknowledged using outside agencies to execute the fraudulent activities.

The 28-year-old won the Miss Woman of the Universe Shenzhen 2024 title, a contest organised by the same organisation that founded Mrs. Universe China.