Martin was sorry for “any misuse that might have occurred,” he answered in an Aug. 30 e-mail. He said he was asking the company’s representatives to remove UConn logos from their correspondence。

　　College Fair

　　More than three months after Martin’s apology, Lin was billed $22,200 to pay American International Student Centers for room and board at the inn, according to an invoice reviewed by Bloomberg News. The Dec. 16 bill displayed the university seal and was headed, “University of Connecticut Office of Undergraduate Admissions。”

　　The misrepresentation wasn’t Martin’s fault because agents in China billed the students and forwarded the money to his company, he said。

　　Beijing Star Overseas-Study Service Co., the agent for Lin’s roommate, Li, feigned a connection with the University of Connecticut in March at one of China’s biggest college fairs。

　　At the China International Education Exhibition, employees of Beijing Star, a state-owned company under the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, set up a UConn booth and handed business cards to throngs of Chinese students. The cards featured UConn’s oak-leaf logo and Web address and the title of “director of admission” at the university’s “China liaison office。”

　　Misunderstanding

　　In a pitch on the site Nihao Wang, where Chinese students search for universities, Beijing Star labels its own phone number as “UConn Beijing’s Office Number。”

　　Beijing Star hasn’t posed as an official representative of UConn, Yang Jingfeng, who handles market promotion for America, said in a telephone interview. “This is a misunderstanding,” said Yang, who had a “director of admission” business card at the fair。

　　Martin said he was unaware until after the college fair that Beijing Star was calling itself UConn’s China office. While he would have discouraged that tactic, “I don’t believe UConn owns its logo in China,” he said. “I don’t think Beijing Star is breaking the law。”

　　While UConn officials didn’t endorse American International Student Centers, they told Martin that his recruits were welcome to apply. Three were enrolled at Torrington for the semester that started in January. One female student refused to go, complaining she had been misled. The university found housing for her at Storrs。

　　Hotel Living

　　That left Li and Lin in the Tollgate’s newest building, a 1992 colonial, where their room has become an island of college life, littered with clothes and the remnants of old meals. They sometimes study in the lower ballroom。

　　Interviewed in the lobby, they said they come from middle- class families. Lin’s father is a civil servant; Li’s, a businessman。

　　Lin didn’t know he was targeted for Torrington until he received his student visa, he said. When he told his agency, Academic Asia China, that he wanted to transfer to Storrs, it had him send an e-mail to Martin’s partner at American International Student Centers. “I thought AISC was part of UConn,” the student said。

　　Lu Yuan, America program director for Academic Asia China, said he believes that UConn-Torrington is cooperating with Martin’s partner. “This situation is quite common throughout American universities,” he said。

　　Main Campus

　　Lu acknowledged that Lin -- and the female student, also represented by Academic Asia, who refused to attend Torrington - - “didn’t know which campus they were going to. From our point of view, we wanted them to apply for the main campus。” Academic Asia’s agreement with Martin’s partner is “under discussion,” Lu said. “The student feedback was not very good, so we are not in a situation of cooperation。”

　　Li, a 18-year-old from Beijing, paid Beijing Star $2,300. While the agency did tell Li he would start at Torrington, it said he could transfer to Storrs after a year. “I didn’t know I had to have 54 credits,” he said。

　　An American International Student Centers Internet slide show touting the Tollgate Inn and Torrington encouraged Li to enroll, he said. The show featured opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, flight training, equestrian and fly-fishing lessons, river rafting, crew and lacrosse。

　　Asked if Martin provided these pastimes, Li said, “Never。”

　　‘Copied and Pasted’

　　Li and Lin didn’t take advantage of the offers, Martin said. Horseback riding? “They had no interest,” Martin said. Fly fishing? “Not yet. Maybe I’ll take them。” As for crew and lacrosse, “That’s a mistake,” he said. “It’s copied and pasted from high-school Web sites。”

　　Their academic experience has been disappointing at times for them and for Torrington staff. “During orientation, I was completely stunned at how difficult it was to communicate with them,” Mosman, the student-affairs coordinator, said。

　　To ease their transition, she enrolled the two finance majors in all the same courses, including math, economics and Asian history, which she figured would be a snap. Instead, the history instructor requires oral participation, and “these two guys won’t talk in class,” she said. “Instructors come to me and say, ‘What do I do?’”

　　Lin’s grades are “so-so,” he said, and he dropped one class. While Li has an “A” average, he has had to “spend much time” improving his writing and speaking, he said. Both rely on computerized translation programs。

　　Boring Life

　　They drive to and from campus in a black Nissan loaner from Martin with more than 170,000 miles on it. Because the inn’s restaurant is closed until Memorial Day, they often eat dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, they said. Grateful for Mosman’s advocacy, they gave her a present: dried Chinese mushrooms。

　　Life is “boring,” Li said. “School, restaurant, here. We have some American friends, not very many。”

　　“Maybe two or three,” Lin said。

　　Both students sought their families’ guidance. “My parents were angry,” Lin said. Li’s parents told him to “just go with it,” he said。

　　Martin took back the car May 9, telling them they would have to pay $500 a week to use it for the summer. “Business man still a man. Why can’t [he] show me some humanity?” Lin said. Martin said the fee includes the cost of insuring additional drivers。

　　‘BeLIEve’

　　On April 7, Melvin instructed the UConn admissions office to return applications to candidates recruited by Martin, who had lined up 15 for next semester. Martin responded in an e-mail to university officials: “This moron has shut down a program that would have brought Connecticut millions of foreign dollars。”

　　The FBI is “currently looking into this matter,” Elizabeth Vitullo, a compliance and public information specialist at the university, said in an e-mail response to a Bloomberg request for documents. The FBI declined to comment。

　　UConn is trying to extricate Lin and Li. Lin expects to transfer to Storrs in September, and Li in January. Li had intended to remain at Torrington and mentor next year’s freshmen from China, Mosman said. He was upset when Melvin told him that UConn would stop admitting Chinese students for Torrington。

　　Li told Mosman, “’I am very sad, I have ruined it for the other Chinese students,’” she said. “It broke my heart。”

　　Asked what other Chinese students could learn from his experience, Li reached for a notebook and wrote, “believe。” He then drew a box around the middle three letters: “lie。”

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