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 The most sweeping college admissions fraud scheme ever unearthed
in the United States was masterminded at a small
college-preparation company based in Newport Beach, California,
prosecutors said. It relied on bribes to coaches, phony test
takers and even doctored photos misrepresenting non-athletic
applicants as elite competitors to gain admissions for the
offspring of rich parents.
"These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege," Andrew
Lelling, the U.S. attorney in Boston, said at a news conference.
"For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely
talented student was rejected."
William "Rick" Singer, 58, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges
related to running the scheme through his Edge College & Career
Network, which charged from $100,000 to as much as $2.5 million
per child for the services, which were masked as contributions
to a scam charity Singer runs.
"I was essentially buying or bribing the coaches for a spot,"
Singer said as he pleaded guilty to charges including
racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. "And
that occurred very frequently."
Dressed in a dark sweater blazer, wearing glasses, her hair in a
ponytail, Huffman, best known for her role in the TV series,
"Desperate Housewives," was among around 20 defendants who
appeared in a Los Angeles court.
Many were slumped in chairs and one woman tried to hide her
face. Huffman's actor husband William H. Macy, known for roles
in movies such as "Fargo" and the hit TV series "Shameless", sat
in the front row of court wearing a gray sweater coat.
Magistrate Judge Alexander MacKinnon ordered Huffman's release
on a $250,000 bond before a March 29 hearing in Boston.
All the defendants who appeared in the U.S. District Court in
Los Angeles were likely to be released on bond, Thom Mrozek, a
spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said in an email.
Macy has not been charged in the case, but Assistant U.S.
Attorney Adam Schleifer told the court he was a "subject of the
investigation."
Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli, a fashion designer known
for his "Mossimo" brand, sat in court wearing a hooded
sweatshirt and close-cropped hair. He was released on a $1
million bond. Loughlin, best known for her role in the ABC
sitcom "Full House" and the recent Netflix sequel "Fuller
House," has also been charged.
Huffman, Giannulli and Loughlin have yet to enter pleas.
LATEST COLLEGE SCANDAL
The case was the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked
the high-stakes, high-stress world of admissions to top
colleges. Prosecutors in Boston in recent years have also
charged Chinese nationals with cheating on entrance exams, while
the College Board, which administers the SAT tests, was rocked
in 2016 by a security breach that exposed hundreds of questions
planned for tests.
Some 300 law enforcement agents swept across the country to make
arrests in what agents code-named "Operation Varsity Blues."
Prosecutors have so far named 33 parents, 13 coaches and
associates of Singer's business.
Other parents charged include Manuel Henriquez, the chief
executive of specialty finance lender Hercules Capital Inc;
Gordon Caplan, the co-chairman of international law firm Willkie
Farr & Gallagher; Bill McGlashan Jr., who heads a buyout
investment arm of private equity firm TPG Capital; and Douglas
Hodge, the former CEO of the investment management firm Pimco.
Representatives for the companies, and for Huffman and Loughlin,
either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for
comment.
The alleged masterminds of scam and parents who paid into it
could all face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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On a call with a wealthy parent, prosecutors said, Singer summed up
his business: "What we do is help the wealthiest families in the
U.S. get their kids into school."
No students have been charged and authorities said some of them were
unaware of the scams.
Prosecutors said it was up to the universities what to do with
students admitted through cheating.
Yale University and the University of Southern California (USC) said
that they were cooperating with investigators.
"The Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of
a crime perpetrated by its former women's soccer coach," Yale said
in a statement.
The coach, Rudolph Meredith, resigned in November after 24 years
running the women's soccer team. Meredith, who is accused of
accepting a $400,000 bribe from Singer, is due to plead guilty,
prosecutors said. His lawyer declined to comment.
John Vandemoer, a former Stanford University sailing coach who
worked with Singer, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on
Tuesday.
LEARNING DISABILITIES
Prosecutors said the scheme began in 2011 and also helped children
get into the University of Texas, Georgetown University, Wake Forest
University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Part of the scheme involved advising parents to lie to test
administrators that their child had learning disabilities that
allowed them extra exam time.
The parents were then advised to choose one of two test centers that
Singer's company said it had control over: one in Houston, Texas,
and the other in West Hollywood, California.
Test administrators in those centers are accused of taking bribes of
tens of thousands of dollars to allow Singer's clients to cheat,
often by arranging to have wrong answers corrected or having another
person take the exam. Singer would agree with parents beforehand
roughly what score they wanted the child to get.
In many cases, the students were not aware that their parents had
arranged for the cheating, prosecutors said, although in other cases
they knowingly took part. None of the children were charged on
Tuesday.
Singer also helped parents stage photographs of their children
playing sports or even Photoshopped children's faces onto images of
athletes downloaded from the internet to exaggerate their athletic
credentials.
Wake Forest said it had placed head volleyball coach Bill Ferguson
on administrative leave after he was among the coaches accused of
accepting bribes.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators heard McGlashan
of TPG Capital listening to Singer tell him to send along pictures
of his son playing sports that he could digitally manipulate to make
a fake athletic profile.
"The way the world works these days is unbelievable," McGlashan said
to Singer, according to court papers.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by
Jonathan Allen, Joseph Ax and Gabriella Borter in New York, Brendan
O'Brien in Milwaukee, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Andrew Hay
in New Mexico; writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by Scott Malone,
Bill Berkrot, Cynthia Osterman and Lisa Shumaker)
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