By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – A former Harvard University fencing coach and a Maryland businessman were acquitted on Wednesday of charges they schemed to secure coveted spots for the executive’s two sons at the Ivy League school in exchange for $1.5 million in bribes.
A federal jury in Boston found Peter Brand, the former coach, and Jie “Jack” Zhao not guilty of all of the charges against them in a case that prosecutors portrayed as part of their broader effort to stamp out corruption in the U.S. college admissions process.
Defense lawyers had argued that the payments Zhao made to Brand were not bribes but loans that he had since repaid and that the government’s star witness, an alleged middleman, could not be trusted.
“We are grateful to the jury for their service and for doing justice in this case,” said Zhao’s lawyer, Bill Weinreb.
The case was tried by some of the same prosecutors who had helped secure several of the 50-plus convictions arising out of a recent college admissions scandal involving wealthy parents and coaches at other elite universities nationally.
The Harvard case, though, was unrelated to that investigation, which was dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” and instead was prompted by an investigative report the Boston Globe published in 2019 in the wake of the broader scandal.
Prosecutors said Brand agreed to help Zhao, the co-founder of a telecommunications company called iTalk Global Communications Inc, secure the admission of his sons to the highly selective school as fencing recruits in exchange for bribes.
Prosecutors said Zhao helped cover the costs of a new sports car, Brand’s son’s student loans and college tuition, and the coach’s utility bills.
Then in 2016, Zhao bought Brand’s rundown house for nearly twice its assessed value, allowing Brand to buy a $1.3 million condo in Cambridge, prosecutors said. Zhao paid the $50,000 down payment for that condo and covered renovation costs.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; and Jonathan Oatis)
