The owner of that company in Hangzhou has got a lot of guanxi at Zhejiang provincial level. I was informed that the owner's husband has an important position in the provincial Zhejiang Bureau of foreign experts. What does that tell you?

Let me also point out that being an agent is not illegal or a criminal thing per se if the agent follows the law. But like most other agents in China, there are agents that are outright crooks taking advantage of a foreigner's situation. They hire foreigners, have them under contract and hire them out to schools that pay the agents. The agents charge the schools all the benefits a foreigner normally gets like airfare reimbursement but pocket it themselves for the most part. I know of concrete cases where a certain agent had people at the age of 70 working for a private university on a tourist visa, which eventually was changed to a business visa by way of guanxi the agent had with local immigration. This is where the cheat starts (and does not necessarily end).

I had an employment agent / training school in Maoming try that trick. I was shown a school that I would was illegal, bottom line is, I filed charges with the experts bureau and he lost some money and is now blacklisted. Problem solved !