A former employee of the ESF school group in Hong Kong admits to taking bribes for K1 seats

The former kindergarten director of Hong Kong’s largest international school group has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to help parents secure places for their children while planning to spend HK$530,000 ($68,180) on school placement.

Before Deputy District Judge Amy Chan Wai-mun at the West Kowloon Court, she pleaded guilty to all four counts of receiving benefits in the form of bribes worth a total of HK$190,000.

Rumjahn accepted payments ranging from HK$20,000 to HK$100,000 from four parents between September 2018 and March 2021, promising to put their children on the waiting list at Wu Kai Sha International Kindergarten and help secure enrollment.

She also pleaded guilty to five of eight counts of conspiring to accept benefits involving HK$530,000 in exchange for obtaining a place at a K1 school during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.

At that time, she was employed at ESF Educational Services and was responsible for processing applications, and the kindergarten accepted registrations for the K1 class in September.