Coach Allegedly Recruited Student Whose Dad Paid $989,500 For House

Source: John Greim / Getty

The College Admissions Schemes Continue

College admission bribery is alive and well, even outside of the hot mess case involving Lori Loughin and Felicity Huffman. 

According to New York Post, a longtime fencing coach for Harvard University is being investigated for allegedly recruiting a high school student whose dad bought the coach’s house for far more than it was worth.

The real estate deal went down in May 2016 when coach Peter Brand sold his three-bedroom Colonial-style house in suburban Massachusetts. He sold it to Jie “Jack” Zhao for $989,500.

However, its assessed value was only $549,300, according to the Boston Globe.

Zhao’s younger son was later accepted to Harvard and joined the fencing team. Meanwhile, Zhao, who made loads of money in the telecom industry, sold the house he bought after 17 months.

Get this…he only sold it for $665,000, according to the Globe. The $324,500 loss was nearly one-third of what he had paid for the house.

The bribery aromas are thick. 

Needham Director of Assessing Chip Davis said that Zhao’s purchase of the house was so out of line with its assessed value that the property was itching for an inspection. He described the house as being “in bad shape” and wrote in his notes that its nearly $1 million sale price “makes no sense.”

Harvard said they were conducting an “independent review” of the Globe‘s findings, with spokesperson Rachael Dane saying, “We are committed to ensuring the integrity of our recruitment practices.”

In the most public college admissions bribery case where 33 wealthy parents were prosecuted, including Felicity Huffman and Lor Loughlin, Harvard was not implicated in the case. Although, a soccer coach at another ivy league school, Yale University, recently pleaded guilty to bribery charges and is cooperating with the feds.

Zhao, whose older son graduated from Harvard last year and was also on the fencing team, denies any bribery schemes to get his younger son into Harvard.

“I want to help Peter Brand because I feel so sorry he has to travel so much to go to fencing practice,” he told the Globe, which said Harvard is around a 12-mile drive from the house in Needham.

Mhm.