A Chinese family allegedly paid the mastermind of a college admissions cheating scheme US$6.5 million to assure their child’s admission to Stanford University, US news media reported on Wednesday.
The payment is thought to be the largest one made by parents who employed William “Rick” Singer, the owner of the Edge College & Career Network, to secure their children’s admissions into elite US universities. The scheme was revealed in March when federal prosecutors, after a year-long investigation dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”, filed charges in what was called the Justice Department’s largest-ever college admissions criminal case.