Parent to plead guilty for involvement in admissions scandal

A woman who allegedly paid for her son’s admission into UCLA has accepted a plea deal, according to a Los Angeles Times article Wednesday.  

Xiaoning Sui, who was detained by Spanish authorities in September, will plead guilty to federal program bribery, the article stated. Sui was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud when she was arrested in September.

Prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Massachusetts and Sui’s attorney agreed that the time Sui has served in a Madrid jail, the city where she was detained, will be sufficient to resolve her case, according to the LA Times. 

According to the LA Times, prosecutors said Sui’s offense calls for 37 to 46 months of imprisonment, as stated by federal sentencing guidelines. Currently, however, there is no agreement between Sui’s legal representation and the prosecutors as to how these guidelines apply to Sui’s indictment and both parties have proposed that a sentence of time served is needed, according to the article.

Sui planned to pay William Singer, the ringleader of the college admissions scandal, $400,000 to have her son admitted as a soccer recruit, although he did not play the sport competitively.

According to Sui’s indictment, Singer then paid former UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo $100,000 to list her son as a soccer recruit. Sui’s son was later admitted to UCLA on a 25% athletic scholarship. 

At least 50 people from eight U.S. universities were charged in the college admissions scandal, which came to light in March. 

Salcedo, who was first indicted in March following racketeering charges, was put on leave in March and later resigned. In a motion filed Jan. 23, the former men’s soccer coach accused UCLA of admitting under-qualified athletes to raise money for the athletic department.