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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
Chinese teenager Sherry Guo’s parents paid US$1.2 million to get her into Yale. So why haven’t they been charged in US college admissions scandal?
Admissions consultant William ‘Rick’ Singer wrote fake application describing Guo as a top-notch soccer player and bribed US coach to submit it
Family’s lawyer James Spertus says they were duped by ‘bad actor’ exploiting language barriers and their unfamiliarity with US higher education system
Associated Press
Associated Press
Chinese teenager Sherry Guo’s parents paid US$1.2 million to get her into Yale. So why haven’t they been charged in US college admissions scandal?
Admissions consultant William ‘Rick’ Singer wrote fake application describing Guo as a top-notch soccer player and bribed US coach to submit it
Family’s lawyer James Spertus says they were duped by ‘bad actor’ exploiting language barriers and their unfamiliarity with US higher education system
Li Huanwu (R) with his boyfriend Heng Yirui. Photo: Facebook
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Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. Photo: Stan Godlewski via The Washington Post Sherry Guo came to California five years ago, a teenager from China with dreams of attending an elite university. Her lawyer does not dispute she got into Yale through the machinations of William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach consultant who defrauded the Ivy League school and similarly selective universities with bribes, rigged tests and bogus accolades. Singer fashioned a fake application for Guo that described her as a top-notch soccer player, which was submitted to Yale by a soccer coach who took a US$400,000 bribe. Once she was admitted, Guo’s family paid US$1.2 million to Singer and a charity he used to launder the bribes and other illicit funds. But unlike dozens of parents swept up in the college admissions scandal, federal prosecutors have not alleged that Guo or her parents committed a crime in paying Singer – the scheme’s confessed mastermind – the seven-figure sum. Guo’s Los Angeles lawyer, James Spertus, has offered a novel explanation for why they have not been charged. He says Guo’s parents forked over the US$1.2 million without a trace of unlawful intent, duped by a “bad actor” who exploited language barriers and an unfamiliarity with the US higher education system to lure them into his con unwittingly. Spertus said “cultural issues did not raise red flags” when Singer asked Guo’s parents for the payment. Her parents do not speak English, and “100 per cent believed the payment was a charitable donation”, the lawyer said. By registering for these newsletters you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy Guo is referenced, but not named, in court papers as a student whose family paid Singer US$1.2 million after she was admitted to Yale in late 2017. Prosecutors have not said why Guo’s parents have not been charged. It was reported earlier this week that another Chinese family paid Singer US$6.5 million to help secure their daughter a spot at Stanford University. Prosecutors have not charged relatives of that young woman either, identified as Yusi “Molly” Zhao by people familiar with the matter. 
William “Rick” Singer leaves federal court in Boston after pleading guilty to charges in March. Photo: AP Thirty-three parents have been charged so far with fraud conspiracy and money-laundering offences. Some have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty. Nineteen parents have entered not guilty pleas, vowing to clear their names in court. To charge someone with fraud, prosecutors must believe they can prove a specific intent to defraud someone else – in Guo’s case, Yale, or students who applied to the school on their own merits, said Michael Magner, a former federal prosecutor in New Orleans. Morgan Stanley adviser fired in admissions scandal vows to clear his name If prosecutors have no evidence Guo’s family intended to defraud Yale or other applicants when they paid Singer the US$1.2 million, then the argument they were drawn into the scheme unknowingly “could very well be a valid defence”, said Magner, now a defence lawyer for the Jones Walker law firm. Guo moved to California from China to attend JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, where she earned high marks and was an accomplished artist, Spertus said. Her strong grades and test scores were especially impressive given that she taught herself English, he added. Spertus said Guo could have gone to a top-flight university on her own merits, and she had wanted to attend Columbia University or the University of Oxford. Rick [Singer] said, ‘No, you’re going to Yale.’ And now the world knows why – he had connections there that were illegal James Spertus, lawyer “Rick said, ‘No, you’re going to Yale,’” Spertus said. “And now the world knows why – he had connections there that were illegal.” Singer paid a Yale women’s soccer coach US$400,000 to pass Guo off as a recruited soccer player in late 2017, despite Guo never having played the sport competitively, prosecutors said in a court filing. Her status as a recruited athlete “significantly improved” her chances of being accepted, they said. The soccer coach, Rudy Meredith, has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and fraud conspiracy. Singer has pleaded guilty to four felonies. Chinese family reportedly paid US$6.5 million to ‘fixer’ for admission into Stanford Spertus said Guo was not copied on emails Singer sent to Meredith and another conspirator, former USC assistant soccer coach Laura Janke, telling them he would “revise” Guo’s application to say she played for China’s junior national soccer squad and co-captained a top Southern California club team. Janke will plead guilty to a racketeering charge and is cooperating with prosecutors. Spertus said the distinctions he draws between Guo’s case and the cases now being adjudicated in federal court in Boston are underscored by the fact his client has not been charged. 
Actress Felicity Huffman exits the courthouse after facing charges on April 3. Photo: AFP “We are very respectful of the prosecutors assigned to this case,” he said. “They’ve been very thorough, and that thoroughness distinguishes Ms Guo’s case from the others.” He declined to say whether the young woman had been interviewed by prosecutors. Their investigation is ongoing, and they have indicated in court filings and interviews with potential witnesses in Los Angeles that there are new targets. The fact the government has referred to, but not named Guo, in court filings suggests she is not likely to be charged, said Magner, the former prosecutor. Her and her parents’ status as Chinese nationals would not sway a decision of whether to file charges, he added. Yale, however, has rescinded Guo’s admission, Spertus said. Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman appear in court over US college admissions scam Her father was first introduced to Singer through Qiuxue Yang, a financial adviser at a Los Angeles branch of Oppenheimer & Co., a spokeswoman for the wealth management firm said. She described Yang as “a junior employee” at Oppenheimer’s Summa Group, which has an office on Wilshire Boulevard. Apart from Yang referring Guo’s father to Singer, the spokeswoman said, “no other relationship existed or exists today between Oppenheimer and the Guo family”. Guo believed Singer was helping her apply to college, but in truth, Spertus said, “he preyed on her”, pocketing from her family a sum far higher than what he received from his American clients. Singer, he said, “targeted foreign students”. 
Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, leave the federal courthouse in Boston after facing charges in a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme on April 3. Photo: Reuters Singer’s lawyer declined to comment. Guo’s case was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Singer’s US clients allegedly paid between US$100,000 and US$400,000 for the athletic recruiting scam, which he dubbed the “side door”, according to court filings. Guo, Spertus said, has had her life upended by someone she believed was guiding her through the uncertainty of a foreign education system. “She would have had an incredible college experience ahead of her but for her deference to a college counsellor she was told would help her,” Spertus said. “You can imagine the tremendous anguish she’ll feel for the rest of her life.” TOP PICKS This Week in Asia Indonesian-Chinese in Taiwan recall how lives changed after the 1998 riots 15 May 2019 Indonesian mobs burning cars and Chinese shops as they plundered shops in Jakarta during the 1998 riots. Photo: AFP This Week in Asia Chinese Indonesians fear attacks as anti-China hoaxes spread online 23 May 2019 Police disperse protesters at Tanah Abang in Jakarta. Photo: Reuters This Week in Asia Trump’s Huawei ‘ban’ gives Asian tech firms 70 billion reasons to worry 21 May 2019 The Trump administration has added Huawei and 70 of its affiliates to its list of firms deemed threats to US national security. Photo: EPA News New Zealand man admits to racist road rage attack on ethnic Chinese family 26 May 2019 Fraser Milne appears in the Auckland High Court. Photo: New Zealand Herald This Week in Asia The spoils of trade war: the Asian winners and losers in US-China clash 19 May 2019 Vietnamese employees weld at a car plant in Hai Duong. The country stands to gain from the US-China trade war. Photo: AFP This Week in Asia ‘I was spat on, peed on, spanked’: Filipino nurse on working in Japan 16 May 2019 A Filipino trainee housekeeper receives tuition from Japanese staffing company Pasona Group. Photo: Bloomberg News Indonesia riots: Prabowo tells protesters to go home after six killed 23 May 2019 Riot police officers at a riot near the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters This Week in Asia In Singapore, LGBT community still faces uphill struggle 2 May 2019 A supporter at Singapore’s Pink Dot LGBT event in 2017. Photo: AFP This Week in Asia China embraced gay ‘marriage’ – until the West perverted history 26 May 2019 An LGBT pride parade in support of Taiwan’s same-sex marriage law. Photo: Reuters News Lee Kuan Yew’s grandson Li Huanwu marries boyfriend in South Africa 25 May 2019
Associated Press
| Published: 4:22am, 3 May, 2019 The text being discussed is available at | https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3008649/chinese-teenager-sherry-guos-parents-paid-us12 and |