Stanford University has expelled a female student for fabricated credentials in her application, amid the still unfolding U.S. college admission cheating scandal, local TV outlet KRON4 reported Monday.
The student, whose name was not publicly released, was accepted through the standard process and not as a recruited athlete, but her admission was followed by a contribution of 500,000 U.S. dollars paid through a former coach to a Stanford sailing program, said the TV report.
The Stanford Daily, a student-run newspaper that focuses on news around Stanford community, said in an earlier report that the expulsion was the latest case linked with the bribery scandal rocking college admissions nationwide.
It said the female student has left Stanford and all her credits earned on campus have been vacated by the university.
Stanford has fired the university's former head sailing coach John Vandemoer who admitted donating half-million-dollar funds to the university's sailing program and pleaded guilty for accepting donations in exchange for recommending non-sailors as recruited athletes.
Several U.S. elite universities including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Texas at Austin have been involved in the 2019 nationwide college admissions scandal, the largest ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
At the center of the vast cheating scheme, which involved at least 50 Hollywood celebrities, prominent businessmen and college coaches, is a Newport Beach, California-based company called Edge College & Career Network, which was run by William "Rick" Singer.
The Stanford Daily said Singer, who is facing multiple criminal investigations, has charged parents, including 11 Bay Area parents and Stanford affiliates, thousands of dollars to artificially inflate their children's standardized test scores for university application.
