A former chief executive officer at a small private university in Sunnyvale, California, was sentenced to a year in prison by a federal court on September 14.

Jerry Wang, 37, will serve jail time and forfeit $700,000 for submitting false documents to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, on behalf of Herguan University, according to sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com.

Wang pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit visa fraud and submitting fraudulent documents after the court dropped 13 other charges as part of his plea agreement.

Wang’s guilty plea related to the submission of a fake academic warning letter sent to students for missing classes. The letter was requested by the DHS after the university requested to be certified by the department in order to admit foreign students.

Herguan University was initially founded by Wang’s father Ying in 2005 when Ying’s health clinic turned into East-West University, which taught students about Chinese medicine practices. Wang’s mother, Su Tong, was the school’s chief financial officer.

Wang’s lawyer said in a statement that Wang never meant to break the law or cheat the system for his family’s business.

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