At left, the building where the University of Northern New Jersey was located. At right, an image from UNNJ's now-defunct Facebook page.

The University of Northern New Jersey had a central office in Camden, a seal imprinted with Latin, and a president, Dr. Steven Brunetti, who was known to students as "Dr. B." More than 1,000 foreigners came through its doors since it was opened in 2013, all of them holding visas to study in the United States. The university even had a vibrant Facebook page, where foreign students posed in front of the UNNJ logo wearing T-shirts that advertised the school mascot, the Badger.

What UNNJ didn't have, however, was a faculty, classrooms, or curriculum. The school was a scam, a fake college created to enable foreign nationals to work in the United States without ever attending class or turning in a piece of homework. And it was a scam run by the U.S. government.

UNNJ was not the first fake university to be shut down by the authorities. It was, however, the first fake university to be owned and operated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement — part of an elaborate multiyear sting operation designed to catch a network of student visa fraudsters.

Essentially, it was all a setup. The Department of Justice announced Tuesday it had indicted 21 people as a result of the virtually-unprecedented operation: brokers, consultants, and employers from across the country who are charged with conspiring to commit visa fraud. The brokers brought foreign students to UNNJ, indictments say, despite knowing that the school was fake.

The brokers told UNNJ's undercover operatives that their clients "only wanted to work" and did not want to attend class, the indictments allege. They bought reams of forged paperwork from undercover operatives they believed were UNNJ employees, submitted it to immigration authorities to obtain student visas. Some petitioned the government for fraudulent H1-B work visas on behalf of UNNJ students.