PLEASANTON — The president and CEO of a private college that catered to foreign students has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for defrauding the Department of Homeland Security by issuing phony visa-related documents to international students in exchange for tuition and fees, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday.

Prosecutors say Susan Xiao-Ping Su, the founder of Pleasanton-based Tri-Valley University, lied about the school’s admission and graduation requirements in order to bring international students to the United States on an F-1, or student, visa.

In exchange, Su collected more than $5 million in fees, money that she used to buy multiple properties around Pleasanton along with a Mercedes-Benz, prosecutors said.

The 44-year-old Su was convicted earlier this year on 31 counts of wire and mail fraud, visa fraud, harboring undocumented immigrants, money laundering and other related charges.

During the three-week trial, employees testified that the university had no requirements for admission or graduation and that Su routinely instructed her staff to create fake transcripts and other university documents.

Su was also convicted of harboring two Tri-Valley University student-employees to assist her in giving the government false information using a federal database, and even asked one of the students to paint her house and move furniture.

In addition to her prison term, Su was ordered to forfeit $5.6 million along with $900,000 in restitution from her visa fraud scheme.

Contact Karina Ioffee at 925-945-4782.