Former Harvard Fencing Coach Charged With Bribery
Harvard’s former fencing coach was arrested and charged with bribery on Monday, accused by prosectors of accepting $1.5 million from a rich businessman in change for recruiting the person’s two sons for the college’s fencing workforce.
Harvard fired the coach, Peter Brand, in 2019, after its personal investigation. The businessman, Jie “Jack” Zhao, 61, of Potomac, Md., was additionally arrested and charged with bribery.
Federal prosecutors stated that Mr. Zhao had paid for Mr. Brand’s automotive, made faculty tuition funds for the coach’s son, paid the mortgage on his home in a Boston suburb, and finally bought the home for inflated value. After Mr. Brand purchased a dearer residence in Cambridge, prosecutors stated, Mr. Zhao paid to renovate it.
The two males have been charged with federal programs bribery, which carries a possible sentence of as much as 5 years in jail.
Harvard began investigating Mr. Brand final yr as universities across the nation scrambled to reply to a sweeping federal investigation of faculty admissions fraud, which raised questions on athletic recruitment and whether or not coaches have enriched themselves by basically promoting recruiting slots.
The United States lawyer’s workplace in Boston charged 50 individuals within the case, referred to as Operation Varsity Blues, together with eight coaches and 33 dad and mom, among them Hollywood celebrities and distinguished enterprise individuals.
Harvard was in a roundabout way implicated within the Varsity Blues investigation.
This is a growing story. Check again for updates.
