Tech tycoon accused of paying bribes for son's admission to Harvard

HARVARD

Harvard University's fencing team was coached accused of accepting bribes.

A high-tech executive is accused of bribing a Harvard coach in order to get his sons into Harvard University.

The former fencing coach at Harvard College and a Maryland businessman Jie “Jack” Zhao were arrested Monday (Nov. 16) and charged with conspiring to secure the admission of the businessman’s two sons to Harvard in exchange for bribes totaling more than $1.5 million.

Peter Brand, 67, of Cambridge, Mass., and Zhao, 61, of Potomac, Md., were charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. Brand will make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston. Zhao made  his initial appearance in federal court in Greenbelt, Md.

Brand’s and Zhao’s plan to circumvent the college admissions process ended up backfiring on both of them. "Now they are accused of exchanging more than $1.5 million in bribes for their own personal benefit,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division.

The scheme was intended to gai admission of Zhao's two sons to Harvard by recruiting them to join the men's fencing team coached by Brand. Brand was fired last year.

Their arrest comes more than a year after The Boston Globe reported that Brand sold his home for nearly double its assessed value to Zhao. Prosecutors say Zhao also paid for Brand’s car and made college tuition payments on behalf of Brand’s sons.

It is alleged that in or about May 2012, Brand told a co-conspirator, “Jack doesn’t need to take me anywhere and his boys don’t have to be great fencers. All I need is a good incentive to recruit them[.] You can tell him that[.]” 

In February 2013, as part of the alleged scheme, Zhao made a purported donation of $1 million to a fencing charity operated by a co-conspirator. Zhao’s older son was admitted to Harvard as a fencing recruit in December 2013, and matriculated in the fall of 2014. Shortly thereafter, the charity passed $100,000 on to the Peter Brand Foundation, a charitable entity established by Brand and his spouse. Thereafter, Zhao began making payments to, or for the benefit of, Brand.

In total, Zhao made $1.5 million in payments to Brand, or for Brand’s personal benefit, even as Brand recruited Zhao’s younger son to the Harvard fencing team. 

Zhao allegedly paid for Brand’s car, made college tuition payments for Brand’s son, paid the mortgage on Brand’s Needham residence, and later purchased the residence for well above its market value, thus allowing Brand to purchase a more expensive residence in Cambridge that Zhao then paid to renovate. Zhao’s younger son was admitted to Harvard in 2017. 

The complaint alleges that Brand did not disclose the payments to Harvard when recruiting Zhao’s sons.

“Jack Zhao’s children were academic stars in high school and internationally competitive fencers who obtained admission to Harvard on their own merit,” defense attorney Bill Weinreb said, according to the Washington Post. “Both of them fenced for Harvard at the Division One level throughout their college careers. Mr. Zhao adamantly denies these charges and will vigorously contest them in court.”

In a similar statement, Brand’s attorney, Douglas S. Brooks, said: “The students were academic and fencing stars. Coach Brand did nothing wrong in connection with their admission to Harvard. He looks forward to the truth coming out in court.”

The charge of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Zhao's case is not related to the highly publicized cases in which Hollywood celebrities and other China-based billionaires through an admissions consultant  bribed university officials to get their children into higly selective United States universities with fake test scores and/or athletic credentials.