New parent accused of admissions scam, linked to a $ 400,000 US bribe at UCLA



[ad_1]

BOSTON – A woman accused of paying $ 400,000 for her son to go to the University of California at Los Angeles, a fake football recruit became the 52nd person indicted in a major corruption program in the United States. a college, announced Tuesday an indictment indictment.

Xiaoning Sui, 48, of Surrey, British Columbia, has been charged with a charge of conspiracy and fraud in the indictment indictment in federal court. of Boston. The authorities claim that she was arrested in Spain on Monday night and that she was being held while the authorities are seeking to extradite him to the United States.

Sui is the first person to be charged since June, when her parent, Jeffrey Bizzack, pleaded guilty to paying $ 250,000 for his son to be a fake athlete at the University of Southern California. Dozens of other people were indicted in March when authorities announced the opening of an investigation.

It was not immediately clear if Sui had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

Prosecutors said Sui had donated $ 400,000 to a charity run by admission consultant William "Rick" Singer as part of a ploy to get his son admitted to UCLA as a fake freshman. soccer. Sui is accused of providing Singer with his son's transcript and pictures of him playing tennis.

Singer worked with Laura Janke, a former assistant football coach at USC, to create a sports profile outlining Sui's son as one of the best players in two private soccer clubs in Canada, announced prosecutors. Singer and Janke both pleaded guilty.

Sui's son was admitted to UCLA as a football player in November 2018, according to authorities, and received a 25% scholarship.

The case was described in the March indictment against former UCLA football coach, Jorge Salcedo, who did not identify Sui by his name. The document says only that Salcedo has accepted $ 200,000 to help two Singer clients get their children admitted to recruitment, including one in October 2018. Salcedo pleaded not guilty.

A UCLA statement says that she took "immediate corrective measures" after the publication of the March indictment. The school said that privacy laws prevent it from discussing specific cases, but that officials are "unaware of the existence of students- currently registered athletes who are suspected "by the Department of Justice.

The alleged bribe is among the highest of the stratagem. Other parents are accused of having made payments of up to $ 500,000, while others have resorted to the scheme repeatedly, according to prosecutors, for a total amount of up to 1, $ 2 million.

Prosecutors did not explain why Sui was not part of the initially charged group of parents. Court documents show that Sui 's indictment was filed in March but remained under seal until Tuesday.

The scandal has trapped dozens of wealthy parents accused of bribes to rig their children's SAT and ACT scores or have them admitted as school-recruited athletes. the country's elite, including Yale, Stanford and Georgetown Universities.

Of the 51 people previously charged, 23 pleaded guilty, including Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, who paid $ 15,000 to rig her daughter's SAT score. Last week, she was sentenced to 14 days in jail, 250 hours of community service and a $ 30,000 fine.

Twenty-eight other defendants contest the charges against them, including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, fashion designer, accused of paying for their two daughters to become USCs as fake athletes of l & # 39; team.

[ad_2]

Source link