Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin Charged In College Admission Scheme With More Than 40 Others
Some of the purported student athletes didn’t even play the sports they were recruited to play.
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among dozens of people charged by the FBI in an elite college admission scheme, documents unsealed Tuesday in Boston revealed.
The Hollywood stars allegedly joined CEOs of private and public companies, real estate professionals and a fashion designer in paying up to $6 million in bribes to ensure that their children were accepted to schools such as Yale and Georgetown. Most of the parents paid $250,000 to $400,000 per student.
The alleged scheme, which the FBI called a “nationwide conspiracy,” allowed parents to pay for their children to cheat on exams and apply to elite schools as student athletes, regardless of their actual skills. Top college coaches at the schools are also among those charged, but authorities said they are not investigating the schools themselves.
Federal prosecutors said 33 parents bribed entrance exam administrators along with varsity coaches and administrators.
The bribery ring allegedly got its start several years ago by William Rick Singer, who founded a for-profit college admissions company in Newport Beach, California, that masqueraded as a not-for-profit group, according to authorities. Singer’s “sham charity” allowed him to conceal the nature of the payments made by parents, who could then “take the tax write-off at the end of the year,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
More than 200 law enforcement officials were involved in “Operation Varsity Blues” over the course of a year, arresting over 50 people in six states on both coasts, authorities said at the press conference. Most defendants had been taken into custody as of noon Tuesday Eastern time.
According to court documents, some parents allegedly paid for someone to pose as their child to take entrance exams ― and even in classes, with those grades submitted as part of the college application. Other cases involved exam administrators allegedly providing students with answers during the tests or correcting wrong answers afterward.
Lelling alleged that some parents also falsely claimed that their children had learning disabilities, requiring extra time on the exams, and that those claims were bolstered by notes from therapists.
Some of the purported student athletes didn’t even play the sports they were recruited to play, according to the charging papers. Lelling said Singer helped the parents stage photos to make it appear that their children played those sports.
ABC News reported that “most” of the students did not know their admission stemmed from bribe money.
Federal officials said they have recorded phone calls in which Huffman, who is best known for starring in the ABC hit show “Desperate Housewives,” and Loughlin, who is known for her role on ABC’s classic “Full House,” discuss the scheme.
The plot allegedly affected applications to Yale, Stanford, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of San Diego and Wake Forest University.
Above is from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin-charged-college-admission-scheme_n_5c87c516e4b08d5b7865d04d
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Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin among those charged in $25 million nationwide college admissions cheating scam
AARON KATERSKY, BILL HUTCHINSON and MIKE LEVINE
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Good Morning America•March 12, 2019
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin among those charged in $25 million nationwide college admissions cheating scam (ABC News)
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Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin among those charged in $25 million nationwide college admissions cheating scam originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and a slew of chief executives are among 50 wealthy people charged in the largest college cheating scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal officials said Tuesday.
Those indicted in the investigation, dubbed "Varsity Blues," allegedly paid bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California, federal prosecutors said.
"This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said at a news conference.
PHOTO: Felicity Huffman in Beverly Hills on Feb 19, 2019 in Los Angeles. | Lori Loughlin,in Beverly Hills, Calif., Feb. 28, 2019. (Getty Images|REX via Shutterstock)
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"There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy and, I'll add, there will not be a separate criminal justice system either," Lelling said.
Ringleader to plead guilty
According to Lelling, the ringleader of the scam is William Singer, owner of a college counseling service called Key Worldwide Foundation, who accepted bribes totaling $25 million from parents between 2011 and 2018 "to guarantee their children's admission to elite schools."
Singer is expected to plead guilty in a Boston federal court on Tuesday on charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice, Lelling said.
PHOTO: Harkness Tower sits on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 9, 2016. (Beth J. Harpaz/AP, FILE)
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Those charged in the probe include nine coaches at elite schools, two SAT and ACT exam administrators, one exam proctor, a college administrator and 33 parents, including Huffman and Loughlin.
"The parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege," Lelling said. "They include, for example, the CEOs of private and public companies, successful securities and real estate investors, two well-known actresses, a famous fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm."
Also named as defendants in the indictment are Robert Zangrillo, founder and CEO of the private investment firm Dragon Global; Bill Glashan, a businessman and international private equity investor; and Gordon Caplan, a New York attorney.
Fake athletic credentials
He said in many of the cases, Singer allegedly bribed the coaches, who "agreed to pretend that certain applicants were recruited competitive athletes when, in fact, the applicants were not."
Lelling said the coaches allegedly "knew the students' athletic credentials had been fabricated."
He said Singer allegedly worked with the parents to "fabricate profiles for their kids, including fake athletic credential and honors, or fake participation in elite club teams."
Singer allegedly even had parents stage photos or Photoshopped pictures of their children participating in sports.
PHOTO:Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, speaks at a press conference on March 12, 2019. (ABC News)
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Singer also arranged for a student to take the SAT and ACT exams individually with a proctor in Texas or California he had bribed, Lelling said.
In one case highlighted by federal prosecutors, the head women’s soccer coach at Yale University was paid $400,000 to accept a student even though the applicant did not play soccer. The parents of that student had paid Singer $1.2 million.
Other elite schools named in the scam were the University of Texas, UCLA and Wake Forest.
Joe Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Field Office, said 300 special agents fanned out across the country early Tuesday and arrested 38 people. He said seven other suspects were working to surrender to authorities and one is being actively pursued.
Huffman was arrested at her home in Los Angeles, while Loughlin, who is in Canada, had yet to be taken into custody, sources told ABC News.
School officials react
USC President Wanda M. Austin addressed the scandal in a letter to the university community.
"The federal government has alleged that USC is a victim in a scheme perpetrated against the university by a long-time Athletics Department employee, one current coach and three former coaching staff, who were allegedly involved in a college admissions scheme and have been charged by the government on multiple charges," Austin wrote.
Austin vowed to take "appropriate employment action" against school employees involved in the scam and will review admissions decisions.
"It is immensely disappointing that individuals would abuse their position at the university in this way," Austin's letter reads. "We will continue to cooperate fully with all law enforcement regulatory investigations."
Wake Forest officials also released a statement saying the North Carolina school's head volleyball coach was one of the defendants indicted.
"The university has retained outside legal counsel to look into this matter," the Wake Forest statement said. "Wake Forest has placed Ferguson on administrative leave."
The nationwide scheme was prosecuted in Boston partly because it was uncovered by FBI agents working on an unrelated case, officials said. Fake test scores were submitted to Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University, officials said, but none of those schools were named in the indictment.
In most cases the students did not know their admission was contingent on a bribe, officials said.
According to the charging papers, Huffman "made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 ... to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter."
Bribes disguised as charitable contributions
"Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so," the documents allege.
Federal agents secretly recorded telephone calls with Huffman and a cooperating witness, according to the court papers.
(MORE: Student claims she was accused of cheating on SAT after her exam was held for review)
The documents say Loughlin -- best known for her role as Aunt Becky on the ABC sitcom "Full House" -- and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, "agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team -- despite the fact that they did not participate in crew -- thereby facilitating their admission to USC."
PHOTO: Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office speaks at a press conference on March 12, 2019. (ABC News)
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Federal agents obtained emails from Loughlin implicating her in the scam, according to the documents.
(MORE: Harvard Students Accused of Cheating on Final Exam Reflects 'Culture of Cheating,' Grad Says)
Federal authorities ultimately had three cooperating witnesses to help them build their case.
"Today's arrests should be a warning to others: You can't pay to play, you can't cheat to get ahead because you will get caught," Bonavolonta said.
Above is from: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/actresses-ceos-arrested-nationwide-college-admissions-cheating-scam-142252158--abc-news-topstories.html
