College Scandal Finally Hits Harvard - Chinese Dude Bought The Fencing Coach's House For 2X List Price To Get His Son In #PrayForFrancis

DAILY MAIL – Jie ‘Jack’ Zhao enriched Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand and his charity to the tune of $500,000 in the years before his son was admitted to the school

Zhao purchased Brand’s home in 2016 for $989,500, despite the fact that he had never seen the property and its assessed value was $549,300

He also donated $1 million to the National Fencing Foundation, who in turn gave a $100,000 grant to Brand’s charitable foundation

Zhao said that he never met Brand until he visited his older son Eric for parent’s weekend at Harvard in 2014, which is the same time he got the $100,000 grant

Zhao also told the Globe he flew six to seven fencers to China twice over the past five years, an admission that might alert the NCAA to possible rule violations.

It was only a matter of time before the college scandal hit the hallowed halls of that little school in Cambridge.  I’m sure Francis won’t blog about this, he’ll try to sweep it quietly under the rug, especially on the eve of his big 30th birthday party.  There’s no way he would want the pall hovering over the festivities, the elephant in the room interfering with lacrosse balls being thrown from corner to corner of the patio in between discussions of the high yields of their investment portfolios as the grass fed responsibly raised beef from Whole Foods simmers on the grill.  But that’s not what intrepid journalism is all about – you have to reveal the dirt, no matter how much that dirt threatens to bury the ones you love and care about, or in this case, involuntarily work with.

The first domino to fall is the exact place we knew to look first: the fencing program.

The Boston Globe reports that entrepreneur Jie ‘Jack’ Zhao purchased the Massachusetts home of Harvard’s fencing coach Peter Brand in 2016 for $989,500, despite the fact that he had never seen the property and its assessed value was $549,300.

A short time later his son Edward, 19, was recruited by Brand for the fencing squad and then accepted into Harvard.

Zhao also made a donation of $1 million to the National Fencing Foundation of Washington DC in 2013, who in turn gave a $100,000 grant to Brand’s charitable fund the following year.

I hooked up with a girl who fenced back in the day.  She was a real freak.  She had the little mosquito net mask and the epee (BIG crossword word, you’ll find it in about 85% of puzzles.)  What I’m saying is the fencers aren’t as innocent as you may think.  And while the kid may very well have had no idea, his dad knew how to get what he wanted: buying the coach’s house for almost 2X the list price and donating a coooooool 1 million bucks to the National Fencing Foundation.

The old man also flew a bunch of fencers out to China for vacations which, in my lengthy coverage of NCAA athletics and their Nazi-like reign, I know is a big no-no.

The purchase of the house and charitable donation may be the least problematic actions however as Harvard opens an investigation into Beard’s dealings with Zhao, as the Chinese national told the Globe during a face-to-face meeting that he ‘bought airline tickets for seven or eight fencers with frequent flyer miles to go to China with his sons early in each of their Harvard career.’

The greatest birthday gift I could offer Francis is my sincere hope that they let this investigation die with the fencing weirdos and don’t start digging into the lax squad.