Mom hit with $250G fine

Had paid $400G in college admissions scam

A Chinese mother will pay a $250,000 fine for her six-figure payment to secure her son’s UCLA admission in the college admissions scandal, a federal judge ruled Monday, sparing her more prison time after her harsh ordeal in a Spanish lockup for five months.

Xiaoning Sui, a Chinese national, may also face immigration consequences in Canada, where she currently lives, for admitting to paying scandal architect Rick Singer $400,000 in 2018 to arrange for her tennis playing son to receive a partial soccer scholarship for the Division I team.

Prosecutor Eric Rosen and defense attorney Martin Weinberg agreed to suggest a sentence of “time served” after Sui spent five months in a Madrid lockup after her arrest in October, where she had few interactions with Chinese-speaking attorneys while awaiting extradition.

“She’s been punished enough,” Weinberg said.

Senior Judge Douglas Woodlock slammed Sui’s actions in paying a fine similar to some of the scandal’s most egregious offenders already sentenced for paying six-figure sums to secure their children’s admissions into top universities.

“While this is a crime involving money, this is a crime that is an affront to the integrity of the educational system in the United States,” Woodlock said.

Other parents contesting the same fraud and money laundering charges in the wide-ranging “Varsity Blues” scandal including actress Lori Loughlin are headed toward a jury trial in October.