Administrator to plead guilty in US college scam

BOSTON: A former college entrance exam administrator was expected to plead guilty to participating in a vast college admissions cheating and fraud scheme, the same day a wealthy parent was set to face sentencing for his own role in it.

Federal prosecutors in Boston say Igor Dvorskiy accepted about US$10,000 (RM41,400) in bribes per student to allow a corrupt test proctor to secretly take SAT and ACT college entrance exams on their behalf or correct their answers.

His plea was scheduled to take place yesterday, hours before title insurance company executive Toby Macfarlane faced sentencing for conspiring to bribe University of Southern California employees to secure the admission of his children as fake athletic recruits.

The two men were among 52 people charged with participating in a scheme in which wealthy parents conspired with a California college admissions consultant to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of their children to top schools.

Dvorskiy, a former director of a private school in Los Angeles, served as a compensated test administrator for the companies that run the SAT and ACT college entrance exams, prosecutors said.

He was expected to plead guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering as part of an agreement to cooperate with authorities in the ongoing investigation, which has been dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”.

Macfarlane pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to commit mail fraud.