Yusi Zhao's mother, who paid $ 6.5 million to a university hustler, says she's fooled: Operation Varsity Blues



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BOSTON – A mother said Thursday she paid $ 6.5 million to the consultant at the center of the broad anti-corruption plan at the universities, after her daughter entered Stanford University, because she was not a college student. she had been led to believe that this money would be used to help disadvantaged students.

The senior federal prosecutor in Massachusetts said in March that parents had disbursed up to $ 6.5 million in the program. According to the authorities, this would involve bribing sports coaches in elite universities and rigging standardized test scores. But details about the family who paid the huge sum remained a mystery until this week.

A statement issued by a Hong Kong lawyer who says she represents the mother said she had donated money to the Rick Singer Foundation in 2017 after her family had used her counseling services and her daughter was entrance to the school. The lawyer identified the mother only as Ms. Zhao and did not give her full name.

The mother stated that Singer had asked her to donate and told her that it would support the salaries of academic staff, scholarships, sports programs and "helping students who would otherwise not". They could not afford to go to Stanford ".

"Since the cases concerning Mr. Singer and his foundation have been widely reported, Ms. Zhao has come to realize that she was misled, her generosity was put to good use and her daughter was a victim of the scam, "according to the release. Vincent WC Law, partner at Mayer Brown.

An email was sent to a Singer lawyer on Thursday.

The mother is not among the 33 significant parents who have been charged in this case, and it is not known if prosecutors are still investigating the family. Authorities have suggested in court documents that new charges are coming.

Singer, who pleaded guilty in March, used his dummy combination to channel bribes to coaches and test administrators to help children of privileged parents to enter selective universities across the country, said prosecutors.

Among the main accused parents in the case include actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and the husband of Loughlin fashion designer, Mossimo Giannulli.

The mother said that she – "like many Asian families" – was unfamiliar with the process of university admission to the United States and had been led to believe that Singer's charity was legitimate. She said the Singer consulting firm "did not guarantee admission to a particular school".

MORE: Lori Loughlin, the husband "did not realize" that the actions were illegal, according to the report

"The gift is in the nature of what many wealthy parents have done openly in prestigious universities," said his lawyer's statement.

Stanford said last month that it had expelled a student involved in the corruption scandal who had lied about her navigation skills in her candidacy. The school said Thursday that she could not confirm if the student whose family had paid $ 6.5 million was the same student as the one who had been expelled.

University officials had previously said that the student had been admitted without the recommendation of former Stanford coach John Vandemoer, who had pleaded guilty to accepting pots-of-pence. -Ven in return for the help given to students to enter the elite university.

The school said that a $ 500,000 contribution to the sailing program had been paid several months after the student's admission.

Stanford said he was unaware of the $ 6.5 million payment to Singer before the media announced it and that he did not receive this sum from Singer or the family working with the consultant.

Huffman, who played in the ABC series "Desperate Housewives", is one of 14 parents who agreed to plead guilty in this case. She will appear in the Boston Federal Court on May 13 to acknowledge her charges of having paid $ 15,000 for a supervisor to correct the answers regarding her daughter's SAT.

Loughlin and Giannulli, accused of paying $ 500,000 in bribes for their daughters to go to the University of Southern California, are among the 19 parents who are still arguing. They pleaded not guilty and did not comment publicly on the allegations.

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