The daughter of a Miami venture capitalist whose family has ties to supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid knowingly took part in the sweeping college-admissions bribery scheme, according to court documents.
Dragon Global CEO Robert Zangrillo was charged Tuesday with conspiring with corrupt college counselor William “Rick” Singer to get his daughter admitted into USC — going as far as hiring someone to retake classes his daughter failed, according to court documents.
His daughter Amber knew about the plot, according to the documents, even asking Singer in a phone call what he was doing “about an ‘F’ grade that she had received in an art-history class she had taken.”
Singer said that one of his employees, Mikaela Sanford, would secretly retake the online class on her behalf and that she had “already got the class almost done.”
Singer asked if his plan made sense and Zangrillo and his daughter replied yes, according to the documents. They also allegedly asked whether Sanford could take a biology class for Amber.
Amber needed the stellar grades on her transcript since her application to the school indicated she “was taking classes” at a number of colleges after being rejected by USC the first time around in 2017.
Her new application also “falsely stated that she rowed crew at a club for an average of 44 hours per week for 15 weeks a year.”
Zangrillo allegedly paid a $50,000 bribe to USC’s athletics department and made a $200,000 donation to a bogus charity so Amber would be labeled an athletic recruit, despite her having never rowed competitively, the criminal complaint states.
On June, 14, 2018, USC accepted Amber. On her Facebook page, she posted in July 2018 that she had started school at USC.
The Zangrillos appear in multiple photos with the Hadids.
Zangrillo posted a photo of himself with Gigi and his other daughter, Alexa, in Central Park in 2013, as well as an image from St. Barths celebrating the New Year in 2014 with the sisters.