(CNN)Harvard University is investigating its head fencing educate amid allegations he carried out a real estate transaction that concerned the family of a present-day and former student-athlete, the faculty introduced Thursday. In 2016, Coach Peter Brand bought his home in Needham, Massachusetts, for almost twice what a tax document stated was well worth. Now, Harvard is carrying out an impartial assessment of that transaction.
Jie Zhao sold Brand’s home for $989,500, consistent with the deed. At the time, he had a son at the Harvard fencing group and one in excessive faculty, The Boston Globe mentioned.
However, a municipal lien certificate suggests the house was worth under $550,000. Zhao sold the property approximately 17 months later for over $300,000. Following selling his home in Needham, Brand purchased an apartment in Cambridge. Documents acquired by way of CNN show the Cambridge belongings were at the start index for $989,000 – only $500 less than what Zhao paid for Brand’s Needham home. Brand bought the Cambridge rental for about $300,000 over the asking rate.
Gary J. Vrotsos, the listing agent for the assets in Cambridge, instructed CNN that this has become not an unusual prevalence. “When the market’s sturdy people installed offers over the asking fee,” Vrotsos said. Brand became appointed as Harvard’s head fencing instructor in 1999, shifting from Brown University. As a teen, he emigrated from Israel to the United States and has coached the Harvard crew to unparalleled success, in line with Harvard’s internet site. Harvard’s upward thrust to the top of intercollegiate fencing has been nothing brief of meteoric, considering Brand has been at the program’s helm.
His Harvard profile reads. In interviews with the Boston Globe, Zhao denied something uncommon about his belongings purchase and insisted that he offered the assets as an investment and a want for his friend, the coach. According to the Globe, Zhao has two sons and was admitted to Harvard as a fencer in 2017.
The other son, a fencer consistent with the Globe, graduated in 2018. Zhao has not replied to CNN’s smartphone calls inquiring for comment. Calls to telephone numbers listed for Brand no longer go through, and he has not responded to CNN’s electronic mail requests for a remark.
