Six unidentified current and former students from a Great Neck, New York high school were arrested Tuesday and now face misdemeanor charges on allegations they paid a college student to impersonate them, take the SAT college-entrance exam and deliver high scores.

Also arrested was Sam Eshaghoff, 19, who attends Emory University and was allegedly given thousands of dollars to take the test for each student between November 2009 and January 2011. He faces four years in prison on charges of a first-degree scheme to defraud, first-degree falsifying business records and second-degree criminal impersonation. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment.

“These are serious allegations,” said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. “There’s no level playing field when students are paying someone they know will get them a premier score when other kids are doing it the fair way and the honest way … They could possibly have taken a seat away from a kid who wasn’t cheating.”

Prosecutors discovered the scheme after noticing the students’ academic performance likely didn’t merit their high SAT scores. The handwriting on all six tests was matched to Eshaghoff’s.

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