A fast-moving US college admissions scandal moved from bombshell indictments to guilty pleas in a matter of hours, yet the full fallout from the federal case against the rich and famous could take months or more to unfold.
Big names such as actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin headlined the list of about 50 people charged in documents released on Tuesday that describe a scheme to cheat the admissions process at eight sought-after schools.
The parents bribed college coaches and other insiders to get their children into selective schools, authorities said.
Photo: Reuters
At the center of the scheme was admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network of Newport Beach, California, authorities said.
Singer pleaded guilty and his lawyer, Donald Heller, said that his client intends to cooperate fully with prosecutors and is “remorseful and contrite, and wants to move on with his life.”
Parents paid Singer big money from 2011 up until just last month to bribe coaches and administrators to falsely make their children look like star athletes to boost their chances of getting accepted, prosecutors said.
The consultant also hired ringers to take college entrance exams for students and paid off insiders at testing centers to correct students’ answers, they said.
Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of US dollars and some as much as US$6.5 million to guarantee their children’s admission, officials said.
“These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege,” US Attorney Andrew Lelling said.
At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents were charged.
Dozens, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning star of ABC Studio’s Desperate Housewives, were arrested by midday on Tuesday. Huffman posted a US$250,000 bond after an appearance in federal court in Los Angeles.
Her husband, actor William H. Macy, has not been charged, although an FBI agent stated in an affidavit that he was in the room when Huffman first heard the pitch from a scam insider.
It was unclear when Full House star Loughlin would turn herself in. Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was released in Los Angeles after posting a US$1 million bond.
The coaches worked at schools such as Yale University, Stanford University, Georgetown University, Wake Forest University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer on Tuesday pleaded guilty in Boston.
A former Yale soccer coach pleaded guilty before the documents went public and helped build the case against others.
No students were charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on.
Several of the colleges involved made no mention of taking any action against the students.
Several defendants, including Huffman, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” Lelling said.
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