National Post (National Edition)
CELEBRITIES CHARGED IN SCHOOL BRIBERY SCHEME
HUFFMAN, LOUGHLIN AMONG 50 ACCUSED OF BEING PART OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCAM
The list of accused reads like a “catalogue of wealth and privilege,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Prominent U.S. businessmen and a Canadian former athlete. In all, 50 people were charged Tuesday in a scheme in which wealthy parents bribed college coaches and other insiders to get their children into some of the most elite schools in the United States.
Authorities called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.
“The parents are the prime movers of this fraud,” said Lelling, U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts, in announcing the $25-million bribery case, code-named Operation Varsity Blues.
The scandal is certain to inflame long-standing complaints that children of the wealthy and well-connected have the inside track in college admissions — sometimes through big, timely donations from their parents — and that privilege begets privilege.
At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents were among those charged. Dozens, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning star of ABC’S Desperate Housewives, were arrested by midday.
The coaches worked at such schools as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. A former Yale soccer coach pleaded guilty and helped build the case against others.
No students were charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were not aware of what was going on. And several of the colleges involved made no mention of expelling or taking any other action against the students.
Prosecutors said parents paid an admissions consultant from 2011 through last month to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children recruited athletes to boost their chances of getting into college. The consult- ant also hired ringers to take college entrance exams, and paid off insiders at testing centres to alter students’ scores.
Parents spent anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to guarantee their children’s admission, officials said.
“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” Lelling said.
Several defendants, including Huffman, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Lelling said the investigation is continuing and authorities believe other parents were involved.
Authorities said coaches in such sports as soccer, sailing, tennis, water polo and volleyball accepted bribes to put students on lists of recruited athletes, regardless of their ability or experience. That, in turn, boosted the students’ chances of admission.
Vancouver businessman and former CFL player David Sidoo is alleged to have paid $200,000 for an unidentified man to take the SAT test in place of his two sons in 2011 and 2012, both of whom were eventually accepted at U.S. colleges.
According to the indictment, Sidoo’s older son scored a total of 1,670 out of a possible 2,400 on the SAT, while his younger son, who was accepted into the University of California-berkeley, scored a total of 2,280 on the exam. According to the court file, the accomplice was directed not to obtain too high a score for the older son, who had previously taken the test himself and obtained a score of 1,460.
His lawyer, Richard A. Schonfeld, issued a statement Tuesday saying Sidoo, the CEO of Advantage Lithium, a Vancouver private investment bank, has been repeatedly recognized for his philanthropic endeavours, “which is a true testament to his character.”
“The charge that has been lodged against David is an allegation that carries with it the presumption that he is innocent. We look forward to presenting our case in court, and ask that people don’t rush to judgment in the meantime,” Schonfeld said.
Also charged were Gordon Caplan of Greenwich, Conn., a co-chairman of an international law firm based in New York; Jane Buckingham, CEO of a boutique marketing company in Los Angeles; Gregory Abbott of New York, founder and chairman of a packaging company; and Manuel Henriquez, CEO of a finance company based in Palo Alto,
Calif.
The bribes allegedly came through an admissions consulting company in Newport Beach, Calif. Authorities said parents paid William Singer, the founder of the Edge College & Career Network, approximately $25 million to get their children into college.
Singer pleaded guilty in Boston on Tuesday to racketeering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Colleges moved quickly to discipline the coaches accused of involvement. Stanford fired former head sailing coach John Vandemoer, UCLA suspended its soccer coach, and Wake Forest did the same with its volleyball coach.
Huffman and Loughlin, who appeared in the ABC sitcom “Full House,” were charged with fraud and conspiracy. Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was also charged.
Messages seeking comment from Huffman’s representative were not immediately returned. A spokeswoman for Loughlin had no comment.
Loughlin and her husband allegedly gave $500,000 to have their two daughters labelled as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team, even though neither participated in the sport. Their 19-year-old daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, who has a popular Youtube channel, attends USC.
Court documents said Huffman paid $15,000 that she disguised as a charitable donation so that her daughter could take part in the college entranceexam cheating scam.
Court papers said a co-operating witness met with Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained to them that he “controlled” a testing centre and could have somebody secretly change her daughter’s answers. The person told investigators the couple agreed to the plan.
Macy was not charged; authorities did not say why.
Prosecutors said parents involved in the scheme were also instructed to claim their children had learning disabilities so that they could take the ACT or SAT by themselves, with extended time, to make it easier to pull off the tampering.