Charges Pile Up Against Tutor as More Students Reportedly Involved in CDM Grade Hacking Scandal

Sixteen additional charges relating to illegal computer access and fraud were filed today against a tutor accused of helping students hack into a computer system to inflate their grades at Corona Del mar High School.

Timothy Lance Lai, 29, was previously charged with helping three students, but now the total of students involved is between a dozen to 15, Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon said. Lai could now face up to 16 years and four months in prison. Previously he was facing up to five years and eight months in prison.

Eleven students were expelled in the cheating scandal.

Lai initially fled the country but was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last month. He was released after posting $200,000 bail, which has not been changed, Zimmon said.

Six of 11 students expelled enrolled in other schools, and five others were transferred within the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Lai is charged with using a “key-logging” device on computers, Zimmon said. Between April 1 and June 14, 2013, Lai allegedly accessed the school’s computer records with passwords obtained from keylogging devices and changed the grades of three students taught by two teachers, Zimmon said.

One of the teachers realized the grades had been changed and notified school administrators, who reported it to police, Zimmon said.

Investigators found another keylogging device on a third teacher’s computer in December 2013, according to Zimmon.

• City News Service