A father of a former Harvard University student is facing 20 years in prison for falsifying his income, so that his daughter could be awarded more than $160,000 in financial aid from the college and the federal government.

Joseph N. Fonge pleaded guilty on Tuesday in the US District Court in Boston to three counts of wire fraud for falsifying his income, reports the Boston Globe. Court documents show that Fonge filed fraudulent federal income tax returns which were then submitted to the College Scholarship Service profile and Free Application for Federal Student Aid and used to assess his daughter's financial need. The daughter, who is now a college grad, was awarded $160,622 in direct aid from Harvard and federal financial aid.

However, Harvard eventually detected the fraud during its review of records for the 2012-2013 academic year. As a result, it canceled the $55,450 in aid that his daughter was slated to receive for that year.

Prosecutors also charge Fonge with using the same false information to earn $46,600 in financial aid for his second daughter while she was attending at the University of Rochester back in 2010.

According to college planning expert Bev Taylor, Fonge's story is pretty typical.

"Falsifying documents regarding college applications is no big news these days," the Ivy Coach told Yahoo Parenting. "Kids are falsifying documents all the time, cheating on the SATs and such."

Likewise, student financial aid expert and the author of "Filing the FAFSA" Mark Kantrowitz said: "I see stories every couple of weeks with someone convicted of financial aid fraud, but the amounts tend to be relatively small, so unless it's a ring or there's something sensationalistic about it, it doesn't get much attention."

In addition, Kantrowitz warns that many schools take the issue very seriously.

"Some universities will expel a student who commits financial fraud -- even if it was the parent who falsified the documents. The student signed them. So parents really need to know: If you commit fraud on the FAFSA, besides stealing from the federal government, you're putting yourself and your kids at risk."

The father is scheduled to reappear in court on March 4 for sentencing.