Kate Taylor and Jennifer Medina

The student is Yusi Zhao, who was admitted to Stanford in 2017, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. Neither she nor her parents, who live in Beijing, have been charged, and it is unclear whether they are currently being investigated. Stanford rescinded Zhao’s admission in April, and she is no longer a student there.

The person with knowledge of the inquiry said that Zhao’s family was introduced to college consultant William Singer by a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley based in Pasadena, California, named Michael Wu. A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley said that Wu had been terminated for not cooperating with an internal investigation into the matter and that the firm was cooperating with the officials. Wu did not respond to a phone call.

At a court hearing in March, the lead prosecutor in the admissions case, Eric S. Rosen, said that Singer had tried to get Zhao — whom Rosen did not identify by name — recruited to the Stanford sailing team and created a false profile of her supposed sailing achievements.

She was ultimately not recruited, but Rosen said that she was admitted to Stanford partly on the basis of those false credentials and that, after her admission, Singer made a $500,000 donation to the Stanford sailing program.

Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges, for masterminding a scheme that prosecutors say included both cheating on college entrance exams and bribing coaches to recruit students who were not actually competitive athletes.

The former Stanford sailing coach, John Vandemoer, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering. According to Rosen’s comments in his plea hearing in March, Vandemoer did not help Zhao’s application “in any material way,” but accepted other donations from Singer to his program in exchange for agreeing to reserve recruiting spots for Singer’s clients. Vandemoer’s lawyer, Robert Fisher, declined to comment.

Zhao’s identity was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Zhao appears to have participated in a recent conference hosted by the Princeton-U.S. China Coalition. Her biography on the group’s website said she was planning to major in psychology and East Asian Studies and was interested in education policy in China. It added that she hoped to be involved in the Chinese government in the future.

Zhao worked during a recent summer in a biology and chemistry research lab at Harvard, under the direction of Daniel G. Nocera, a professor of energy at the university. Nocera said in an email that Zhao was unpaid and worked for Stanford credit.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/yusi-zhao-stanford-university.html" id="31157363-2bb7-3887-a168-deb1ea30eb9e">The New York Times</a>.

Chinese Family Reportedly Paid $6.5 Million for Spot at Stanford

From the day in March that prosecutors announced charges against 50 people in a sweeping college admissions fraud investigation, they have held out a tantalizing mystery: an unnamed family that they said had paid the college consultant at the center of the scheme $6.5 million — far more than any of the parents named in the case — to get their child into college.

The 33 parents charged in the scandal are mostly accused of paying the consultant, William Singer, either tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to facilitate cheating on admissions tests or to bribe coaches or other officials so that their children could be admitted to schools as recruited athletes.

But the prosecutors leading the largest-ever college admissions prosecution have also alluded to other families, not named and not charged, who paid far more. One family paid Singer $6.5 million to get their child into college through the recruitment scheme, the prosecutors have said. Another was described in court documents as having paid Singer $1.2 million in connection with their daughter’s application to Yale.

Prosecutors said that the daughter, whom they called Yale Applicant 1 in court documents, was admitted to Yale as a recruit for the women’s soccer team, despite not being a competitive soccer player. According to documents charging Rudolph Meredith, the former women’s soccer coach at Yale, Singer had paid Meredith a bribe to designate the young woman as a recruit for the team. Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges, and Meredith has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges.

On Friday, Yale Applicant 1 was identified as Sherry Guo, a young woman from China who was a freshman at Yale until March, according to her lawyer, James Spertus.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, Christina Sterling, declined to comment on Guo’s case. Asked why Guo and her parents — as well as the still unidentified family that was said to have paid Singer $6.5 million — have not been charged in the case, she said, “I cannot comment other than to say it is an ongoing investigation.”

According to the charges against Meredith, Guo and her family were introduced to Singer in 2017 by a financial adviser in Los Angeles.

According to the charging documents, Singer mailed Meredith a check for $400,000 in 2018, and later that year, Guo’s relatives paid Singer $1.2 million in several installments, $900,000 of which was sent to a nonprofit foundation Singer had set up, and which prosecutors argue was used to hide much of Singer’s and his clients’ illicit activity.

Spertus said that Guo and her parents did not know that the payment was going toward a bribe. Her parents did not speak English and were not in direct contact with Singer, he said, while Guo herself was naive about how the college admissions process worked in the United States.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/college-admissions-scandal.html" id="18ab6210-05d3-396a-a5bd-31d83f67eebe">The New York Times</a>.

Who Paid $1.2 Million to Get Into Yale? A Family's Lawyer Solves the Mystery

One of the mysteries of the sweeping college admissions fraud case has been over the families that prosecutors say paid the biggest sums to a college consultant at the center of the schemes but that have not been charged.

Georgetown did not identify either student, but Semprevivo’s lawyer, David Kenner, said he had received an email from Georgetown informing him that his admission had been rescinded and that he would be dismissed.

Semprevivo, 21, who is from Los Angeles, just finished his junior year at the college in Washington, D.C. His father, Stephen Semprevivo, pleaded guilty last week to paying a college consultant $400,000 to secure his son’s admission to Georgetown as a recruit to the tennis team, even though the son did not play tennis competitively. According to the lawsuit, Adam has a 3.18 grade-point average in college so far. He has not been charged in the case, nor have any other students, though several have received target letters from prosecutors.

Kenner said that dismissal was too harsh a punishment.

“It’s a life sentence,” he said. “He’s lost three years of his life, studying, getting good grades, doing everything that was expected of him.” He added it could be difficult for Adam Semprevivo to gain admission to another college and that the dismissal could also affect his job prospects. “Potentially this will follow him for the rest of his life.”

The lawsuit — which appears to be the first case of a student suing over discipline imposed as a result of the scandal — underscores the complicated position that universities find themselves in as they try to figure out what action, if any, to take against students connected to the case. Some students appear to have been oblivious to their parents’ illicit efforts to get them into elite colleges, while others were aware, according to documents in the case.

Here are some answers to important questions about the case.

— How is Georgetown involved?

Prosecutors say that Georgetown’s former tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, took $2.7 million in bribes from the college counselor at the center of the case, William Singer, between 2012 and 2018. In exchange for the bribes, according to prosecutors, Ernst designated at least 12 of the children of Singer’s clients as recruits to the tennis team, ensuring their admission to Georgetown, one of eight colleges — including Yale, Stanford, and the University of Southern California — where prosecutors say the scheme played out. Ernst has been charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering and has pleaded not guilty.

The charging documents specifically mention five parents or sets of parents whose children prosecutors say were designated by Ernst as recruits to the Georgetown tennis team. In four of those cases, prosecutors say the students’ applications included fabrications about their supposed tennis accomplishments. One student appears to have actually played tennis in high school, but not at Georgetown. Two of the students have already graduated.

— What did Georgetown know?

More than a year before federal authorities announced charges in the scandal, Georgetown knew of problems with Ernst’s recruiting practices.

In 2017, the admissions office discovered what a spokeswoman called “irregularities in the athletic and other credentials” of two students being recruited by Ernst to play tennis. The university placed Ernst on leave and began an internal investigation, which found that he had violated university rules concerning admissions. The university asked him to resign in 2018.

Ernst went on to get a job as the head coach of women’s tennis at the University of Rhode Island. Georgetown has said that it knew nothing about the bribes described by prosecutors and did not find any criminal activity.

— How did Georgetown decide to dismiss these students?

Georgetown gave few details about its investigation of the students. In a statement, a spokeswoman said that, after the charges were brought in the case earlier this year, the university began a review focused on whether any students knowingly provided false information to the university when they applied for admission.

“Each student case was addressed individually and each student was given multiple opportunities to respond and provide information to the University,” the spokeswoman, Meghan Dubyak, said in an email.

Semprevivo’s lawsuit sheds a little more light. It says that Semprevivo first learned he was being investigated in April, through an email from a university official. It says that he was later sent a letter with a list of 29 questions.

— What have other colleges done?

Two months after charges in the admissions scandal were first announced, some colleges have taken steps to remove students while others appear to be still sorting through what to do. Yale and Stanford have each rescinded the admission of one student.

At the University of Southern California, roughly two dozen students were being investigated through the student judicial affairs committee. The total number of current students being investigated or who have been investigated at schools around the country is most likely 30 or higher.

It was not immediately clear why some schools have moved quickly while others have taken more time.

— What did the Georgetown students know?

It is not clear what Adam Semprevivo knew about the admissions scheme, though he did send an email to Ernst — drafted by Singer — with false statements about his tennis experience, and he received an email from Singer with an essay intended for his Georgetown application that also contained false statements, according to both the charging documents and the lawsuit. His application to Georgetown also listed other fabricated tennis credentials.

The lawsuit says that Singer told Semprevivo that Ernst was a friend and would provide a recommendation for him during the admissions process. It also says that Singer submitted Semprevivo’s application and typed his name in the signature block. Students are required to sign their applications to affirm that the information in their application is accurate.

Kenner, the lawyer, said that Singer had worked with Semprevivo for over a year — coming to his house every two or three weeks to tutor and advise him — and gained his trust.

Another current student whose parents have been charged in the case also seems to have been at least somewhat aware, according to the charging documents. Prosecutors have said that Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez, a couple from Atherton, California, paid Singer $400,000 to bribe Ernst to designate their elder daughter, Isabelle, as a recruit to the tennis team.

Additionally, according to prosecutors, the Henriquezes paid Singer at least $50,000 to arrange for cheating on the SAT, ACT and SAT subject tests for Isabelle and her younger sister. The Henriquezes have pleaded not guilty.

Like Adam Semprevivo, Isabelle Henriquez also sent an email to Ernst that was drafted by Singer, with fabrications about her tennis experience, according to documents.

Prosecutors have said that Henriquez actively participated in the test cheating scheme. According to the charging documents, Singer arranged for an SAT expert to proctor her SAT in exchange for a bribe.

The proctor, Mark Riddell, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering and is cooperating with the investigation, told investigators that he had sat next to Henriquez during the exam and provided her answers, according to the criminal complaint.

Henriquez and representatives for her parents did not respond to messages asking if her admission had been rescinded.

This article originally appeared in <a id="d04cd805-aaf1-315d-afd5-686f32245bca" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/us/georgetown-expels-students.html">The New York Times</a>.

Georgetown plans to expel 2 students tied to scandal

Georgetown University said Wednesday that it planned to dismiss two students connected to the college admissions scandal. Just hours earlier, one of those students, Adam Semprevivo, whose father has pleaded guilty in the case, sued Georgetown for threatening to expel him, saying that the university had denied him due process and that it should have been aware of misrepresentations on his application long before the Justice Department announced charges in the nation’s largest college admission...

At the Stanford campus Wednesday, several students seemed unfazed by the news that one of their colleagues had paid millions to be there. Tamara Morris, a 20-year-old junior studying political science and African American studies, said she was unaware of the Zhao case. Conversation about the college admissions scandal had died down in recent weeks on campus, Morris said, adding that she was not particularly bothered by the news.

“I know how I got in,” she said.

This article originally appeared in <a id="31157363-2bb7-3887-a168-deb1ea30eb9e" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/yusi-zhao-stanford-university.html">The New York Times</a>.

Chinese family reportedly paid $6.5 million for spot at Stanford

On Friday, Yale Applicant 1 was finally identified: She is Sherry Guo, a young woman from China who moved to Southern California for high school and who was a freshman at Yale until March, according to her lawyer, James Spertus.

Guo’s identity was first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the charges against Meredith, Guo and her family were introduced to Singer in 2017 by a financial adviser based in Los Angeles. An employee of the financial adviser sent Singer an email “stating that Yale Applicant 1’s father wished to make a ‘donation’ to ‘one of those top schools for his daughter’s ‘application,’” the charging documents said.

Singer promptly sent Guo’s résumé and personal statement to Meredith, the soccer coach, according to the charging documents. Her personal statement contained links to her art portfolio; Singer told Meredith he would “revise” the materials to “soccer.” A few days later, he sent Meredith an athletic profile that falsely described Guo as the co-captain of a prominent club soccer team in Southern California. Meredith then designated her as a recruit for the soccer team.

According to the charging documents, Singer mailed Meredith a check for $400,000 in 2018, and later that year, Guo’s relatives paid Singer $1.2 million in several installments, $900,000 of which was sent to a nonprofit foundation Singer had set up and which prosecutors argue was used to hide much of Singer’s and his clients’ illicit activity.

Spertus said that Guo and her parents did not know that the payment was going toward a bribe. Her parents did not speak English and were not in direct contact with Singer, he said, while Guo herself was naive about how the college admissions process worked in the United States. (Spertus would not identify Guo’s parents.)

Guo wanted to go to Columbia University or Oxford, Spertus said, but Singer told her that she should apply to Yale and that she would be guaranteed to get in. While that might have seemed strange to a student who grew up in the United States, he said, Guo did not expect to have much choice about where to go to college.

“She wasn’t working with Singer to find the best school for her,” he said. “She is now devastated because she is no longer in college, period.” Yale has said that it rescinded the admission of one student in connection with the case, but has not identified the student.

He said that Guo was not copied on either of the emails that Singer sent to Meredith suggesting that her college credentials be falsified to say she played soccer.

Spertus said the large size of the payment suggested Singer was exploiting Guo’s family and their lack of knowledge about the college process.

“The amount alone shows that he was preying on the Chinese community,” he said. “The donation was made to help underprivileged youth. They were not aware that the money went to Meredith. They did not know that he was going to use that money for a bribe. There is no evidence of that whatsoever.”

Who paid $1.2 million to get into Yale? A family's lawyer solves the mystery

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