American Education is the ultimate dream for many foreign students and parents alike. Some can go to any extent to secure admission in one of the leading schools. Moreover, if someone promises their children an Ivy League school, most parents get excited without verifying the proposal.
The dubious nature of such empty promises struck a chord in foreign couple quite late, that is, after they lost millions.
A Honk-Kong based couple is suing a educational consultant who allegedly cheated them by claiming that he was a Harvard professor and could get couple's two sons into an Ivy-League school.
Gerald and Lily Chow have filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston against Mark Zimny, who ran an educational consultancy named IvyAdmit Consulting LLC. They are suing him and his consultancy for $2 million.
The lawsuit says, the Chows were approached by Zimny at their first son's graduation ceremony in Massachusetts and claimed he was a professor at Harvard. But, the lawsuit says:
"Zimny was never a Harvard professor; he had briefly been a visiting assistant professor and a lecturer, but any faculty relationship with Harvard had ended by June 30, 2005, two years before he met the Chows."
The Chows had no knowledge of U.S. based education, but had enough money which they thought would be enough to get both the sons into Ivy Leagues. Boston Globe points out that, in fact, Harvard was their 'target university.'
The suit also states that the Zimny advised them against donating the money to Harvard, as the administrators, he allegedly said, were wary of Asian donors due to 'embedded racism' and said he would act as the middleman.
On the whole, the Chows have reportedly paid Zimny more than $2.2 million.
He is being sued on the charges of fraud and breach of contract.
But, Zimny has denied the allegations.
"As made clear in the public legal memoranda filed for Dr. Zimny in this case, he absolutely denies committing any fraud or other misconduct," told John Fitzpatrick, an attorney representing Zimny to ABC News.
Hopefully, the episode will set an example to all desperate parents who easily fall prey to many fraudulent education consultancies.