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

BOSTON – A mother said Thursday she paid $ 6.5 million to the consultant at the center of the mbadive anti-corruption plan at universities, after her daughter entered Stanford University, because she had been led to believe that this money would be used to help disadvantaged students.

The Mbadachusetts Senior Federal Prosecutor 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 Hong Kong lawyer stated that he represented the mother and that she had donated money to the Rick Singer Foundation in 2017 after her family had used her services. his daughter had entered school. The lawyer identified the mother only as Ms. Zhao and did not give her full name.

The mother says that Singer had asked her to donate by telling her that she would support the salaries of academic staff, scholarships, sports programs and "helping students who would not otherwise be able to attend Stanford ".

"Since the cases concerning Mr. Singer and his foundation were widely reported, Ms. Zhao realized that she had been misled, her generosity was put to good use and her daughter was the victim of the scam "said the statement of Vincent WC Law, partner at Mayer Brown.

An email was sent to a Singer lawyer on Thursday.

The mother is not among the 33 prominent parents who have been charged and it is unclear whether prosecutors are still investigating the family. Authorities have suggested in court documents that new charges are coming.

According to prosecutors, Singer, who pleaded guilty in March, used his fictitious charity to pay bribes to coaches and test administrators to help the children of privileged parents get into selective universities across the country.

The prominent parents charged in the case are the actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and the husband of Loughlin's fashion designer, Mossimo Giannulli.

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

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"The gift is of the same nature than those that many wealthy parents have been doing openly in prestigious universities, "said his lawyer's statement.

Stanford announced last month that she had expelled a student linked to the corruption scandal who had lied about her sailing credentials 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 stated that the student had been admitted without the recommendation of former Stanford sailing coach, John Vandemoer, who had pleaded guilty to having accepted bribes 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 reported it and that he did not receive this Singer's sum or 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 to bring their daughters 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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