College scandal hits Harvard as it is revealed Chinese national whose son was recruited as a fencer bought coach’s home at $400k over listing, donated $100K to his charity and flew 15 NCAA athletes to Asia
Jie ‘Jack’ Zhao enriched Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand and his charity to the tune of $500,000 in the years before his son was admitted to the school
Zhao purchased Brand’s home in 2016 for $989,500, despite the fact that he had never seen the property and its assessed value was $549,300
He also donated $1 million to the National Fencing Foundation, who in turn gave a $100,000 grant to Brand’s charitable foundation
Zhao said that he never met Brand until he visited his older son Eric for parent’s weekend at Harvard in 2014, which is the same time he got the $100,000 grant
Zhao’s younger son Edward got a perfect score on his SATs and received just a single ‘B’ during his four years at the prestigious Saint Albans School
It is unclear if he fenced, but his older brother was the Harvard captain
Zhao also told the Globe he flew six to seven fencers to China twice over the past five years, an admission that might alert the NCAA to possible rule violations
AC