BOSTON — The biggest school admissions scandal ever prosecuted began with a tip from an executive investigators were targeting in a securities fraud probe, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

The executive told Boston authorities chasing down the market manipulation scheme that the women’s soccer coach at Yale University said he would label the executive’s daughter as a recruit in exchange for cash, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Investigators recorded a meeting between the executive and the coach at a Boston hotel room in April 2018. During the meeting, which is described in court documents, authorities say Rudy Meredith told the father he would help his daughter get into Yale in exchange for $450,000. Meredith accepted $2,000 in cash in the hotel room and gave the executive directions about how to wire the rest of the money, authorities say.

Meredith began cooperating with the investigation that same month in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence, prosecutors say in court documents. Meredith, who resigned from Yale in November, has agreed to plead guilty to charges including wire fraud. A message was left Thursday on Meredith’s phone.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the source of the tip. Authorities have not publicly identified the executive.