13 more charged in SAT cheating scandal in N.Y.

New York authorities today charged 13 more students and former students from an affluent Long Island community with paying others to take their college-entrance exams for them, according to news reports.

Seven others from the Great Neck area were charged in September in what is thought to be the first prosecution for cheating on the SAT or ACT. The impersonators were paid up to $3,600 per test to boost scores and better their customers' chances of getting into a top school, said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

"We now know that the security vulnerabilities we exposed in September are a systemic problem that compromise the integrity not only of the SAT, but also the ACT, in several schools in Nassau County and beyond," Rice said at a news conference, The Long Island Press reports.

Felony charges were filed today against four alleged test-takers: Joshua Chefec, 20; Adam Justin, 19; Michael Pomerantz, 18; and George Trane, 19. Justin attends Indiana University; Chefec goes to Tulane University; and Trane is at State University of New York-Stony Brook. Prosecutors did not immediately know where Pomerantz is a student, the Associated Press says.

Chefec, Justin and Trane were charged with scheming to defraud, falsifying business records and criminal impersonation. If convicted, they each face up to four years in prison. Pomerantz is expected to surrender next week.

The New York Post describes Chefec, a business major, as "brilliant."

The students accused of hiring impostors are being prosecuted as juveniles and thus not being identified. They were charged with misdemeanors.