Exclusive | Fired Morgan Stanley financial adviser seeks to clear his name in US college admissions scandal
- Michael Wu introduced Chinese family to ‘fixer’ Rick Singer, who was paid US$6.5 million to help a student win acceptance to Stanford
- Wu’s lawyer says his client was misled by Singer, whom he met through a Morgan Stanley list of service providers
The fired Morgan Stanley financial adviser who introduced a wealthy Chinese family to the mastermind of the unfolding college admissions cheating scandal plans legal action to clear his name, his lawyer told the South China Morning Post on Thursday.
Michael Wu’s lawyer said that his client had been misled about a US$6.5 million payment the family made to ensure that their child gained admission to Stanford University.
Wu, who worked for the financial services firm in Pasadena, California, was fired in March, Morgan Stanley said, for not cooperating with an internal investigation into the cheating scandal.
“Mr. Wu will pursue any and all available legal recourse to vindicate his rights,” his lawyer Raymond Aghaian, a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, said on Thursday. He added that Wu had been fired while out of the country and had been “attempting to fully cooperate with Morgan Stanley”.
Asked when and where Wu would file legal action, Aghaian said: “We cannot disclose that information at this time.”
