NC woman gets prison for hiding foreign athletes from ICE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The founder of a now-defunct private school in North Carolina has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for hiding foreign student-athletes from federal immigration authorities.

News outlet report 65-year-old Evelyn Mack was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to harbour aliens. Court documents say Mack, owner and schoolmaster of Evelyn Mack Academy, forged enrolment and immigration records for the student-athletes in return for bribes from coaches and recruiters.

She’s believed to have gotten $1,000 kickbacks on about 75 students, most from Africa. Prosecutors say Mack lied about the students attending her academy, which qualified for the student-visa program. They say the students were actually shipped across the country to schools not in the program, allowing them to avoid detection by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.