In college admissions scandal, families from China reportedly paid the most
Families from China reportedly paid the most money to William “Rick” Singer, the architect of the sprawling, multibillion-dollar college admissions scandal.
One Chinese family allegedly paid $6.5 million to Singer, the consultant at the center of the scandal who flipped on the parents and helped the FBI to build the case, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the matter. That was the highest amount of money paid by a defendant to secure their child’s acceptance to a top college. The identify of the family is still unknown.
Another family reportedly paid $1.2 million to secure the admission of their 21-year-old daughter to Yale University. The student, Sherry Guo, moved from China to the U.S. as a teen to attend school in California, with the hopes of eventually going to Oxford University or Columbia University, her attorney, James Spertus, told the Journal.
Spertus did not respond a request for comment.
Because Guo was unfamiliar with the college application process in the U.S., “Rick Singer’s instructions to her didn’t seem as out of place as they would to a student who grew up in the United States and has more of an expectation of choice,” Spertus told the journal.
Singer allegedly submitted to Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, then the head coach of the Yale women’s soccer team, Guo’s resume and personal statement, which falsely listed her as a member of a junior national development team in China and co-captain of a prominent club soccer team in California. Singer allegedly paid Meredith $400,000 in exchange for him accepting Guo as a recruited athlete.
Meredith pleaded guilty last month for his role in the scandal.
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Yale has since rescinded its acceptance of Guo.
In total, $25 million is estimated to have gone toward alleged bribes to college coaches, school officials and administrators as part of the scandal. Thirty-three parents were charged in connection to the cheating scam, which took place over the course of eight years.