VANCOUVER—A Surrey, B.C., woman was arrested in Spain Monday night in connection with the U.S. college admissions scandal, a multimillion-dollar scheme to help wealthy parents get their children into elite universities.

Spanish authorities arrested Xiaoning Sui, 48, for using bribery and other forms of fraud to help her son get into the University of California Los Angeles as a soccer recruit, said a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sui is accused of working with William “Rick” Singer — CEO of the company The Key, which allegedly bribed coaches and college officials as well as helped wealthy students cheat on exams — to pay $400,000 to aid her son’s admission to UCLA through wire transfers to the Key’s bank account.

She is the 52nd defendant who has been arrested and charged in the scandal. Authorities are seeking her extradition to Boston to face charges.

According to court documents that were unsealed on Tuesday, Sui’s son, who is only identified as “Applicant 1,” did not play soccer competitively, but was instead a tennis player.

Between August and October 2018, Sui had multiple phone conversations with Singer and other recruiters with the aid of a Chinese translator, and agreed to the bribe. One recruiter created a profile for Sui’s son touting him as a Canadian soccer star, using photos of another individual playing soccer.

Court documents show that in November 2018, Sui’s son was admitted to UCLA as a soccer player, and was awarded a 25 per cent scholarship as part of his soccer recruitment.

Sui is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss — depending which is greater.

Sui’s son has not been identified. However, a statement to Star Vancouver from the school suggests that his admission to UCLA was revoked before he could start the 2019 school year.

“UCLA took immediate corrective action after this case was initially outlined in the Department of Justice’s March 2019 indictment,” said the statement from UCLA provided by Shana Wilson, a spokesperson in the athletics department.

While UCLA would not give details about the specific case concerning Sui’s son, the school said they could “revoke the admission and athletics scholarship offer of any admitted student or dismiss any enrolled student who is found to have misrepresented information on their application.”

It is not clear why Xiaoning Sui was in Spain at the time of her arrest.

Two properties, one in Burnaby and another on Marine Drive in South Surrey, are registered under the name Xiaoning Sui.

According to B.C. court documents, a Xiaoning Sui at the Surrey address was taken to small claims court in 2018 by car rental company DK Conquest Luxury Rentals Inc.

The company alleged that Sui and a man named Qiran Li rented a 2014 BMW M5, and sustained more than $17,000 in damages to the front of the car, rendering it unusable. While the couple was said to have provided a $7,500 damage deposit for the car, the company alleges that the insurance was void due to the “reckless use of the vehicle by Mr. Li.”

Bryan Ide, education director at Key Education, a private school and college preparation consulting firm based in Vancouver, said that it wasn’t uncommon in his field of work to hear stories of Canadian parents attempting to bribe their child’s way into an elite U.S. university.

“You hear rumours all the time of families trying any way possible of getting their children into top-tier U.S. universities,” he said on Tuesday, adding that there were several stories of parents “going to a school’s fundraising office and making a donation.”

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However, Ide said it was unlikely anyone was trying to make bribes for admission to Canadian universities, because admission to Canadian schools are based mostly on transcripts sent directly from secondary schools to universities, and much harder to falsify.

“In the U.S. there are a lot of factors — students’ grades, SAT scores, essays — a lot of moving pieces for admission,” he said. “In Canada it’s quite cut and dry.”

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