Damilare Sonoiki’s meteoric rise from impoverished immigrant to a trio of prominent American institutions—Harvard University, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -1.04% and “The Simpsons”—crashed last week when he pleaded guilty to an insider-trading scheme involving an NFL player.
Before his fall from grace, the 27-year-old Sonoiki kept a darker secret. Just before he was scheduled to graduate in 2013, he was accused by several women of sexual misconduct, including an allegation of rape, according to people familiar with Sonoiki’s college and work career. He denied the allegations.
Harvard’s administrative board investigated his conduct. A person familiar with the case said that, on the morning of graduation, Sonoiki was informed his degree was being withheld pending the investigation. “Your diploma is not going to be in your envelope,” the administrator told Sonoiki, this person said. More than a year later, Harvard formally decided he would not receive a degree.
The Harvard proceedings were confidential, and no criminal charges were filed. In the years that followed, Sonoiki traversed a broad array of elite circles while trading on a Harvard degree that he did not have.
Sonoiki, in an interview, acknowledged and denied the accusations he faced at Harvard and said none of them should be described as rape. He apologized to family and friends for “putting them through this current storm, and I look forward to moving beyond it.”
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Popular on WSJ.com:
Michael Kors woos Versace in push for foothold in high fashion
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to meet Donald Trump to consider his future at DOJ