Canadian mom charged with paying $400,000 to have son admitted to UCLA

momopi

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https://www.latimes.com/california/...ge-admissions-scandal-ucla-fake-soccer-player

Canadian mom charged with paying $400,000 to have son admitted to UCLA as fake soccer player

By MATTHEW ORMSETHSTAFF WRITER
SEP. 17, 2019 9:48 AM

A Canadian woman was arrested in Spain and charged with paying William ?Rick? Singer, the consultant at the heart of the college admissions scandal, to ensure her son was admitted to UCLA as a bogus soccer player, federal authorities in Boston said Tuesday.

Xiaoning Sui, of British Columbia, was arrested by Spanish authorities on Monday night, according to the U.S. attorney?s office in Massachusetts, which is seeking Sui?s extradition. Sui, the 35th parent to be charged in the college admissions scandal, has been indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Sui paid Singer $400,000 to have her son admitted to UCLA as a recruited soccer player, despite her son not having played the sport competitively, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in March. The indictment was sealed until Sui?s arrest. The Times reported Sui?s alleged deal with Singer last month.

Singer paid Jorge Salcedo, UCLA?s former men?s soccer coach, to designate Sui?s son as a soccer recruit, despite knowing Sui?s son didn?t play the sport, the indictment says. Singer compensated Salcedo with a $100,000 check, prosecutors allege.

Sui?s son was approved in November 2018 for admission to UCLA and awarded a 25% athletic scholarship, according to the indictment.

Singer has pleaded guilty to four felonies and cooperated with federal prosecutors. He is awaiting sentencing.

Salcedo was indicted in March, charged with arranging a similar deal with Singer in 2017. Prosecutors allege Singer paid Salcedo $100,000 to misrepresent the daughter of a wealthy Bay Area couple, Bruce and Davina Isackson, as a soccer recruit. The couple pleaded guilty earlier this year and admitted their daughter didn?t play soccer.

Salcedo has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering.


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I don't get it.  With $400K budget she could have easily sent her son to a prestigious private university abroad in England, France or Switzerland.  Why spend that much to bribe someone just to get into UCLA?
 
When we do business in China, we just don't go bribing government officials willy nilly.
There has to be a trust and understanding between the two parties.  Usually a fixer is involved.

I'm sure this person didn't know how to donate $400,000 to guarantee UCLA entrance.  You gotta know someone.
An open secret where no one wants to talk about it, but everyone knows it's happening.
 
18% admission to UCLA - Yikes..
It would probably be a lot cheaper to have your kids attend Community College for 2 years and transfer into UCLA.
 
Panda said:
18% admission to UCLA - Yikes..
It would probably be a lot cheaper to have your kids attend Community College for 2 years and transfer into UCLA.

But some students don?t transfer in 2 years or simply don?t transfer to a university
 
When I was graduating HS we had no budget for 4 year university, because we opted to use our savings to buy a house and I went to Jr. College (eventually transferring to CSUF).  But if my parents had a budget of $400K for me, UCLA wouldn't be anywhere near my list.  You'd probably find me attending college in France or Japan.

Having attended both Cerritos JC and Fullerton JC, I can tell you that community college has fairly high dropout rate and low graduation rate.  But if you're transferring, 4 year universities like the fact that JC already filtered out the flakes.

 
When you have $400,000 to blow on bribing college admissions, your family already has a house in France and Japan.
So UCLA is exotic.
 
My instincts tell me that momopi is probably wealthier than most of you UCLA grads on TI.

momopi said:
When I was graduating HS we had no budget for 4 year university, because we opted to use our savings to buy a house and I went to Jr. College (eventually transferring to CSUF).  But if my parents had a budget of $400K for me, UCLA wouldn't be anywhere near my list.  You'd probably find me attending college in France or Japan.

Having attended both Cerritos JC and Fullerton JC, I can tell you that community college has fairly high dropout rate and low graduation rate.  But if you're transferring, 4 year universities like the fact that JC already filtered out the flakes.
 
Panda said:
18% admission to UCLA - Yikes..
It would probably be a lot cheaper to have your kids attend Community College for 2 years and transfer into UCLA.

Some of the most important learning you do is outside the classroom, not inside one.  Living on your own, away from your parents and support system, for extended periods of time in invaluable.  Going to a commuter school can't replicate that experience. 
 
Panda said:
My instincts tell me that momopi is probably wealthier than most of you UCLA grads on TI.

I think I've made decent amount of assets over the past 20 years, but it's not really comparable to my wife's alumni's from gold spoon backgrounds.  For example one of her friends received multi-million dollar dowry from her parents in TW because she married someone they approved.

In another example, I can probably re-write a Korean drama plot where wealthy Korean chaebol son is replaced by Taiwanese kid from wealthy family with vast land holdings (in TW), meets and marries GF from college (UCLA), gained parents blessing to marry right out of college in episode 15, and the happy ending (episode 16) is that their parents bought them a million dollar home, the couple do unpaid volunteer work for Church only (no real job), have 2 kids and receive generous monthly allowance from parents.  This would be based on a real life/true story.
 
zubs said:
When we do business in China, we just don't go bribing government officials willy nilly.
There has to be a trust and understanding between the two parties.  Usually a fixer is involved.

I'm sure this person didn't know how to donate $400,000 to guarantee UCLA entrance.  You gotta know someone.
An open secret where no one wants to talk about it, but everyone knows it's happening.

Zubs, you're sounding cynical like me.  But then again, everybody and major major media bazking in the made for prime time drama just glanced over the truism.  One opening spoken by the US Massachusetts DA,
In fact, U.S. attorney Lelling specifically told reporters at Tuesday?s press conference: ?We?re not talking about donating a building so that a school is more likely to take your son or daughter. We?re talking about deception and fraud.?
https://gen.medium.com/the-true-scandal-of-the-college-admissions-scam-e1b303d58204
 
As I've said before, when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs donated (at least) $50 million each to Stanford, they did so openly and the funds went to benefit the University and students.  To get their daughters in via equestrian sports they spent tens of millions of dollars on horse farms, horses and trainers.  They did not photoshop their kid's head on someone else's picture for admissions.

When someone paid $400K bribe to get their kid into college with fake credentials, the money went directly into someone's pockets.  The school and its students did not benefit from the money.

And if the parents can afford $400K bribe, they could have sent their kid to equestrian, sailing, rowing, squash, lacrosse, fencing, golf, water polo, etc.  For about $1,000/month you can afford a decent trainer, and your kid will be healthy, athletic and fit.  These sports tend to have far fewer college applicants due to cost involved.
 
Rick Singer was caught a long time ago.  He was working with the FBI for a couple of years to catch these cheaters so he could get a reduced sentence.  He was like one of those bait cars police setup to nab car thieves.  I guess they could have ran this operation for another year and caught more rich and famous people, but after they got the two famous moms, it was enough. 



When you're that wealthy, it's not about money anymore, but about how the people in your own rich world perceive you.  Having a son attend Harvard or some other high end school is a status symbol for the parents.  For the young kids it's showing off the lambo at diamond J.
 
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