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A former administrator at an ESF International Kindergarten has been sentenced to 25 months in prison for accepting more than HK$600,000 in bribes in exchange for securing priority admission for children.
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The defendant, Fatima Rumjahn, 56, who worked at the kindergarten's Wu Kai Sha branch, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to nine corruption charges, including five counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage and four counts of an agent accepting an advantage.
At the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, Deputy Judge Amy Chan Wai-mun handed down the sentence and ordered Rumjahn to repay HK$640,000 in illicit gains to the ESF within three years.
The court heard that between September 2018 and August 2021, Rumjahn abused her position by soliciting payments from 13 parents and one businessman.
After their children had passed admission interviews and been placed on the waiting list for K1 classes, she accepted cash payments ranging from HK$20,000 to HK$100,000 in exchange for guaranteeing school places.
In mitigation, the defense argued that Rumjahn was a “shopaholic who was bad at managing money” and committed the offenses due to financial difficulties.
However, the judge described her conduct as a clear abuse of power that undermined the fairness of the admissions system and damaged the reputation of the ESF.
She said a deterrent sentence was warranted, noting that Rumjahn, as the instigator of the scheme, deserved a heavier penalty than the parents involved.
The scheme came to light in February 2021 following an internal ESF audit, which found that cases handled by Rumjahn had breached the kindergarten’s admissions policies. She was dismissed that same month and later arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in April, when she admitted to the offenses under caution.
