(3) Evan Allen, On the Saber's Edge; How an anxious parent with money, a private tutor, and an elite coach thrust Harvard into the admission scandal. Boston Globe, Nov 10, 2019 (front-page top report).
Quote:
(a) "The lives of three powerful men intersected at the threshold of that side door [to Harvard University]. Peter Brand, the university's fencing coach in the twilight of his career, planning for retirement but dreaming of a windfall. Alexandre Ryjik, the Soviet-trained head of the 'World's Largest Fencing School' who came from nothing and loved the high life in America. And Jie 'Jack' Zhao 赵捷, the Chinese millionaire who would do anything to see his two beloved sons succeed.
(b) "The Globe began reporting on the extraordinary financing maneuvers by Brand, Ryjik, and Zhao in the spring [after federal prosecutors filed charges against others], starting with Zhao's purchase of the Harvard's coach's Needham home at an inflated price -- at a time when his younger son was seeking admission to Harvard.
(c) "Brand, Ryjik, and Zhao have steadfastly denied wrongdoing/ All three decline to answer specific questions for this story.
(d) "Like any parent, Jack Zhao wanted the best for his two sons. He secured them every advantage. He sent them to Washington, DC's St Albans School, a private all-boys institution overlooking the US Capitol — where tuition this year runs as high as $67,000. * * *
"After all, Zhao -- bestacled and ambitious and deeply proud of his Chinese roots -- had truly made it in America. and why shouldn't his children? He had arrived from Beijing in 1985 to attend the University of Cincinnati, and gone on to cofound iTalk Global Communications Inc., a telecommunications business that he and his partners sold their majority stake in for $80 million in 2012.He continued as CEO, and positioned himself as a champion of Chinese culture, partnering with sports stars like basketball here Yao Ming. 'Sports can truly hkp us enter mainstream America society,' Zhao proclaimed at one event.
"Fencing, Zhao told a crowd at an event celebrating Olympic fencing champion Sheng Li [sic; should be LEI sheng 雷声, in 個人花劍 Men Individual Foil (as opposed to Men’s Individual Epee, Men’s Individual Sabre; each of the three has Team counterpart)] in 2012 [summer, London], was another front in the Chinese fight for life and future in a foreign land.
"In Virginia, his sons wielded sabers.
"They were in exclusive company. There are somewhere around 7,000 high school fencers in America, compared with almost a million high school basketball players. Basketball courts dot landscapes of towns and cities rich and poor across America, and the barriers to entry are low: sneakers, a ball, gym shorts. Fencing pistes -- the long, narrow mats where athletes lunge back and forth in electrical vests that pick up the too-fast-for-the-naked-eye touches of their elegant blades — can be found mostly in private clubs. Many fencers who want to climb high enough in the rankings for colleges to take notice travel to tournaments all over the world.
"The sport evolved into its modern form after the French courtiers of Louis XIV began carrying light, short swords to suit their silk stockings and brocaded jackets, and in many ways today, it remains a sport of the aristocracy and conspicuous wealth.
(e) "The banners of Harvard, Penn, Yale, and Dartmouth fluttered auspiciously from the ceiling of the Virginia Academy of Fencing, where Zhao began taking his older boy, then about 8 or 9 years old, around 2003 or 2004.
"It was run by Alexandre Ryjik, a big and boisterous saber coach who often touted the Master of Sport in Fencing of the USSR he said he earned at 17.
"At first Ryjik didn't think Zhao's older son would amount to much as an athlete, Zhao said. But then the boy started winning, and Zhao started paying for Ryjik's business class flights to fencing tournaments in Poland, Hungary, Germany. Ryjik trained both Zhao's sons.
"By the late 2000s, Ryjik was flush with cash from training fees and talking a lot about Zhao, said his estranged [second] wife, Kathleen Ryjik, whom he started dating around 2007. The couple is currently in the midst of an acrimonious divorce.
(f) "He [Alexandre Ryjik] told her [Kathleen Ryjik] he'd come to America at 19 after growing up poor in Coviet Union, where success depended on who you knew and how you used them.
(g) "In 2009, Alexandre Ryjik * * * did two things that would surface a decade later in a darker light. "He started a charity called the National Fencing Foundation * * * He he began bragging publicly about a deal he said Zhao had made him, according to two people who heard his claims separately, and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. One of the people documented their concerns about the boats in a computer file that was shared with the Globe, Ryjik and Zhao denied impropriety.
"Rumors of the deal started to spread in the small suburban fencing community.” ‘ Can you believe it? Ryjik allegedly asked one of the two people, fairly bursting with the good news. 'Zhao said he will pay me $1 million to get his kid into Harvard.'
"To hold up his end of the deal, Ryjik would need the help of a friend: legendary Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand, who had arrived at the university in 1999 and propelled its beleaguered team from the bottom of the Ivy League rankings to the top, sending fencers to the Olympics and earning a cascade of 'coach of the year' accolades. Brand coached Ryjik's own son , who started at Harvard in 2011.
"Brand, who was raised on an Israeli kibbutz and immigrated to America at 13 years old, inspired fierce devotion among his athletes. * * * Once, Brand had declared being named head coach at Harvard one of the highlights of his life * * *
(h) "Jack Zhao's oldest boy was about to head into his junior year at St Albans. Soon, he would be applying to college.
"The texts, which appears to be authentic messanges between Peter Brand and Alexandre Ryjik began at 8:17 pm on May 1, 2012.
" '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,' writes the sender, identified as 'Piter Brand' in the screenshot. 'You can tell him that.'
" erhaps unbeknownst to Brand, Ryjik was storing screenshots of their communication on his computer. The messages, sprinkled with typos, span a period from May to July of 2012, and form a contemporary record.
" 'Is there space * * * for your favorite Chinese supporter?' Ryjik asked Brand at one point.
" ' Of course as long as Zhao cones through with the financial support  ' Brand replied. when Ryjik suggested they continue the discussion over diner, Brand texted:
" 'He is my no 1 as long as my future us secured'
"Brand, Ryjik, and Zhao all declined to respond to questions about the messages.
"The texts might have vanished into the ether. But six years after they were written, Ryjik's wife, Kathleen, discovered them while searching through his computer. She read with rising alarm — and sudden clarity. She knew how they did it.
(i) Kathleen Ryjik recalls that sometime during their marriage, Alexandre "Ryjik revealed to her the true purpose of the foundation — and it was not helping poor children. Kathleen Ryjik said she doesn't remember his exact words, but she remembers that he was so shockingly explicit about what he was doing that she didn't believe him at first.
"The foundation, she says he explained, was just a way for rich parents to pay him to get their children into Ivy League schools without raising eyebrows.
"* * * Then she came across the text messages. They told a different story. She took pictures of them.
" * * * It was only after the Globe ran its first story in April, and Alexandre Ryjik incorrectly identified his estranged wife as the newspaper's source, that Kathleen Ryjik contacted a reporter.
(j) "A million dollars came through in February 2013, in the form of a donation from Zhao to Ryjik's charity, the National Fencing Foundation — just as Ryjik had been heard boasting. Three months later, Peter Brand and his wife incorporated their own charity, the Peter Brand Foundation, in Delaware, records show.
(k) Admissions Committee does the admission, not a coach; "but a coach's blessing helps. * * * In fall 2014, the elder Zhao boy came to Cambridge, and Ryjik's foundation cut Brand’s foundation a check for $100,000.
"Jack Zhao still had his younger son to think about.
(l) "In 2015, Zhao’s financial connection to Ryjik deepened. Zhao's company bought Freedom Enterprises, a limited liability company that Ryjik and his first wife ran that owned the property where they operated their fencing academy. He has declined to disclose the price, but county records show the building and land were worth about $6.2 million at the time.
"And then, in 2016, Zhao made a purchase that, three years later, would thrust them all into the sights of the Globe and federal prosecutors.
"He bought Peter Brand's house, a tired little Colonial in Needham, for about $400,000 over the assessed value.
" * * * In 2017, Zhao's younger son started at Harvard, on the fencing team with his brother.
"Federal prosecutors and the FBI declined to comment.
" * * * Zhao, Ryjik, and Brand all declined to answer questions about whether they had been subpoenaed.
(m) " * * * The Zhao boys, the university said, were both fencers, and both qualified to be there.
"Zhao's older son graduated from Harvard in 2018. His younger son remains on the fencing team's roster.
Note:
(a) This report spans almost two pages, in part thanks to big illustration and photos.
(b) Needham, Massachusetts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needham,_Massachusetts
(table: Population 30,999 (2010 census); "Needham split from Dedham and was named after the town of Needham Market in Suffolk [county], England")
is eight-mile air distance from downtown Boston.
(ii) Needham Market. Needham Market Town Council (that is what "tc" stands for in the URL), undated
https://www.needhammarkettc.co.uk/history/
("The name Needham Market, according to the gazetteer in a reputable Atlas of the British Isles, means “needy homestead with a market”. Today that name would appear to be inaccurate on both counts. As far as it is known, no mention of Needham Market was made in the Domesday Book, but we should remember that originally Needham was only a hamlet of Barking and did not become a separate parish until the early part of the 20th century. In old notes relating to the town it is spelt 'Nedeham,' 'Nedham' or 'Neidham' and the first mention of the town under its present name is in 1245")
Barking, Suffolk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barking,_Suffolk
is a village
(iii) History of Needham Market in Mid Suffolk. In A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, undated
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/7538
("In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Needham Market like this: 'NEEDHAM-MARKET, a town * * * had a weekly market, from which it took the latter part of its name, and which [market] as been discontinued; * * * ")
Great Britain Historical GIS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_Historical_GIS
("NB: A "GIS" is a Geographic Information System")
(c) St Albans School (Washington, DC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_School_(Washington,_D.C.)
(d) épée
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Épée
(e) The admission of the elder son to Harvard runs out of statute of limitations (five years) unless the father is proven to do the same trick again, which restarts the clock.
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发表于 11-12-2019 17:14:03
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