US college scam: Chinese mum Xiaoning Sui accused of paying US$400,000 to get son into UCLA as fake soccer player
- Prosecutors say Xiaoning Sui paid US$400,000 to a sham charity operated by admissions consultant William ‘Rick’ Singer, the scam’s admitted mastermind
A Chinese woman was arrested in Spain and charged with paying the mastermind of the college admissions scandal US$400,000 to ensure her son was admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles as a phoney soccer player.
Xiaoning Sui - whom prosecutors identified as a 48-year-old “Chinese national” and a resident of Surrey in British Columbia, Canada - was arrested by Spanish authorities Monday night, according to the US 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 fraud and honest services mail fraud.
To guarantee her son a spot at UCLA, prosecutors say Sui turned to William “Rick” Singer, the Newport Beach college admissions consultant who earlier this year admitted to overseeing a sprawling, decade-long scheme that defrauded some of the country’s most selective universities with rigged college entrance exams, fake recruiting profiles and six-figure bribes to college coaches and administrators.
Sui, 48, paid Singer US$400,000 to have her son admitted to UCLA as a recruited soccer player, despite that the boy had not played the sport competitively, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in March.
