Zhousengshen Family v. American Study Intermediary Fraud 3 years by volume 2.15 million dollars

The example of cheating clients ' money is not uncommon, and this time it falls to a wealthy family in Hong Kong. In November of this year, a Hong Kong couple sued the American intermediary for obtaining a huge sum of $2.155 million ($ 16.8 million), but failed to help their two sons enter the American Ivy League school.　　The plaintiffs ' couple, named Gerald Chow and Lily Chow, are the English names of Zhou Jingcheng and his wife He Yanping, the executive director of Zhou Sang Group International Ltd.　　According to the HKEx, Zhou Jingcheng is the nephew of Zhou Junlian, the founder of Zhou Sang-sheng group, and a dentist, in addition to serving as Zhousengshen Director, he also served as chairman and Chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Jing Lin Initiative (International) group and Shanghai Jing Lin, as well as a number of government offices in Hong Kong "A little understanding of the market, and some caution will not be so cheated."　　"The consultancy fee charged by the agency is much higher than the market price and it is easy to expose the pretence of donations," said the head of an advisory body studying abroad. Three years, 16.8 million HKD. The appeal to the court showed that in 2006 the couple decided to send their two sons to high school in the United States to pave the way for a top American institution.　　At that time, the 15-year-old eldest son enrolled at Eagle Creek Middle School in Massachusetts (Eaglebrook parochial), and his youngest son was studying in Hong Kong. An American named Zimny (Mark Zimny) began to come into contact with Zhou's family at the graduation ceremony of the eldest son in 2007.　　He appeared as a relative of Iny, a South Korean classmate of the eldest son, and claimed to have been a professor at Harvard University, and successfully helped iny into his "dream school". In the second half of 2007, Zimny with his husband, a partner who calls himself his wife, to meet him in Hong Kong. At the time, Zimny told them that they had a consulting agency called Ivyadmit Consulting Associates, LLC (hereinafter "Ivyadmit"), which helped Korean students enter American universities. Zimny says he has strong connections at both the New England boarding school and the Ivy League school, and is willing to help the two sons of Zhou family enter the first class American school.　　Later, Zimny introduced two Harvard University professors to the Zhou couple.　　After contacting two Harvard professors, Zhou's couple, who knew little about the admissions process in the United States, signed a study-abroad intermediary agreement with Zimny for two sons. The agreement said: "Although the authorities will declare that the school has the right to refuse any ' concession conditions (quid pro quo) ', but there is a price to talk about." Zimny told the couple that if Zhou's family donated money through Ivyadmit to a school that his son wanted to go to, the chances of an Ivy League college would be great.　　He added that schools are looking to get donations from Asian students, "this is an unwritten rule." Zimny in the agreement, he will be a month from every child in the family charge 4000 dollars, which does not include tuition fees,Room and board. These 4000 dollars are used only for advisory services, including 24 hours of communication with two children at any time, provision of admission guidance, participation in parent and living arrangements, etc.　　But the tuition fees are paid through Ivyadmit to the school, the company will inform the Zhou couples in advance to wire the charges. Then, according to Zimny, the two sons of Zhou began attending high schools and junior high schools in the United States respectively. In the 2007-2008, Zimny repeatedly told the couple that most of the boarding and private colleges would have a systematic and step to the community to raise funds to support a number of development projects.　　These programs can create a wide range of opportunities for children to further their studies and develop their quality. Therefore, in the Zimny of the recommendations and requirements, in January 2008 and March, Zhou's couple telegraphic transfer of 75,000 and 80,000 of dollars to Ivyadmit, called "to the two sons of the school donation."　　Zimny did not say which schools the money would be donated to. In 2008, Zimny once again proposed to the Zhou couple to change the proposed monthly payment of $4000 in advisory fees to two sons for a one-time fee of $1 million.　　Said the money would join with other Korean customers to form a large pool of funds donated to universities to boost the chances of these children joining the Ivy League. Soon after, Zimny said he had a wealth of investment experience, the 2 million-dollar temporary idle funds can be first invested, and will return as a consultancy fee and two children's tuition. He also stated that if the second child could be admitted to the school in the contract, the couple would have to pay a 1 million-dollar advisory fee to Ivyadmit for each child, offset by the 2 million dollar return on investment.　　Zhou's couple paid 2 million of dollars for their trust. The relationship broke down in the summer of 2009. At that time, Zimny suggested that Zhou Jia two sons 2008 to 2009 school year summer vacation to Korea examination sat (American University Entrance Examination).　　Later, Zhou couples found that the trip, Zimny to the two children out of the cost list price higher than the actual price more than three times times. Zhou's husband and wife began to ask him to announce his email to the school and other institutions for tuition fees, but he was rejected.　　After questioning the second son's school principal, the couple found that the school had not received any donations from the Zhou family, nor, as Zimny said, that he was entrusted with recruiting students for the school. In the fall, Zimny again asked the couple to add a 1 million-dollar advisory fee. He said the money would be used to donate to Stanford University, but was rejected by the lost trust of the weekly couple.　　learned that can no longer get money from them, Zimny immediately stopped to Zhou home study abroad advisory services. In 2010, the Zhou couple to the Zimny to recover 2 million of dollars of consulting fees, then Zimny and Ivyadmit to court. The case will be commenced in November 2012. The appeal revealed that the plaintiff accused the other of fraud, breach of contract, improper means of obtaining benefits, and asked the other party to return 2.155 million dollars (about 16HK $800,000). Two of the lawyers responsible for the mainland and Hong Kong told reporters that such an agreement rarely stipulates that if the application fails, the study intermediary needs to return the customer's application for consulting fees. Instead, if the application is successful, the remaining half of the application fee should be paid. Therefore, the customer is more passive in the contract.　　This kind of lawsuit, need to collect a large number of intermediary agencies do not act or sales process fraud and other evidence, but not the right to the failure of the application, and ask the intermediary to return the consultancy fee. Ivy donation: 5 million U.S. dollars in 2011, the number of Chinese study abroad as high as 340,000 people, ranked first in the world.　　With the increase of wealth accumulation, through the donation to seek the opportunity for their children to study in universities, began to become the mainland's high net worth people planning one.　　Wang Yu, general manager of the School of Education, said Ivy League schools in the United States have three new sources: one is outstanding, or have special talent, experience of students, second, social dignitaries or people who make outstanding contributions to the community after the three may be family business, have the financial resources to the school foundation for large donations of family children.　　The latter two forms of enrolment generally bypass the admission committee through the referral of senior alumni or managers of alumni associations, thus avoiding fierce competition, but the number of people is generally no more than 2%. Although the European and American Colleges and universities "standard" different, the situation is not the same every year, but the general donation will be more than 5 million dollars. Wang Yu to say, not a number of student families donated together.　　In particular, he cautioned that donations of more than $5 million were not guaranteed to be accepted, because the applicant's own conditions were also valued, so it was important to communicate with the school alumni and managers beforehand. He cautioned that such large sums of money would not normally be done through an advisory body on study abroad, but would be directly transferred from an offshore account of the applicant's family to a donated account in the university. Furthermore, the applicant's guardian or authorized representative shall enter the university in person and sign a detailed donation agreement with the school.　　The agreement may include some additional provisions, the applicant's academic performance and so on, such as when the applicant's performance to meet the minimum requirements for admission to the school can be admitted. In addition, Wang Yu remind the applicant and parents more than the advisory body to study the program, fees and so on.　　Under normal circumstances, the highest end of the entire service to study intermediary agencies down, within 3 years of the contract advisory fees will not exceed 150,000 U.S. dollars; for the qualified students, consulting fees generally 80,000 yuan on it.　　In terms of agreements and programmes, Wang Yu said that the agreement should set out the details of the consultation fee, such as the 150,000-dollar consultation fee, may have included a few years of one-on-one tutoring English exam, to the United States to participate in summer camp and other projects. The two lawyers also said that the agreement and sales, customers should do a good job recording and data collection, "to prevent disputes in the first place." ”