A former Harvard fencing coach and a Maryland businessman were arrested and charged Monday morning in connection with a college admissions scandal that was revealed last year, ABC News reported.
Peter Brand, a former Harvard fencing coach, and Jie Zhao, the chief executive of a telecommunications company, are facing conspiracy charges after Zhao allegedly spent over $1.5 million to bribe Brand in order to ensure that his two sons were admitted to Harvard, ABC News reported. (RELATED: Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli Sentenced In College Admissions Scandal)
The scandal was first uncovered by the Boston Globe in April 2019, when it was revealed that in 2016 Zhao bought a three-bedroom home in Needham, Massachusetts from Brand for nearly double what it was worth. 17 months later, Zhao sold the home at a loss of $324,500. Zhao reportedly never lived in the home.
At the time he bought the home from Brand, Zhao’s son was a prospective student at Harvard. Zhao’s son was admitted to Harvard as a member of the fencing team in 2017, and his other son graduated from the university in 2018.
Zhao told the Globe in 2016 that the investment was meant to help a friend and was not a bribe, although he realized it looked suspicious.
“I want to help Peter Brand because I feel so sorry he has to travel so much to go to fencing practice,” Zhao said. Brand’s commute was 12 miles.
A federal grand jury launched an investigation into Peter Brand in 2019.
SAC Joe Bonavolonta’s statement on this morning’s arrests of Peter Brand, a fmr fencing coach at Harvard College, and Jie Zhao, a MD businessman, for conspiring to secure the admission of Zhao’s two sons to Harvard in exchange for more than $1.5M in bribes https://t.co/tMpIzAyFOf pic.twitter.com/EkxE7613mx
— FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) November 16, 2020
Brand allegedly ensured that Zhao’s sons would be admitted to Harvard by recruiting them for the fencing team in exchange for money, according to the ABC report. (RELATED: Prosecutors Move To Investigate More Families In College Fraud Scandal. Who Could Be Next?)
“Jack doesn’t need to take me anywhere and his boys don’t have to be great fencers,” Brand allegedly told a co-conspirator, according to court documents. “All I need is a good incentive to recruit them[.] You can tell him that[.]”
Part of the scheme allegedly involved Zhao donating $1 million to a fencing charity operated by a co-conspirator in February of 2013, according to the report. In December of 2013, Zhao’s oldest son was accepted into the university as a fencing recruit. Shortly after Zhao’s son started as a student at Harvard in 2014, the fencing charity that Zhao had donated to gave $100,000 to a charity established by Brand and his spouse, the Peter Brand Foundation.
Shortly after the money was given to the Peter Brand Foundation, Zhao made a series of payments benefitting Brand, ABC News reported.
Zhao allegedly paid for college tuition for Brand’s son, paid for Brand’s car, and paid Brand’s mortgage on his Needham home – the same home that he later bought for nearly double its value. After Zhao bought Brand’s Needham home for nearly $1 million, Brand purchased a more expensive home in Cambridge. Zhao allegedly later paid to renovate Brand’s new Cambridge home.
None of the payments were disclosed to Harvard when Zhao’s sons were recruited by the university, the complaint alleges.