Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin charged in US college admissions bribery fraud
Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin among 50 rich parents accused of bribing insiders to get their kids into elite colleges.
US federal prosecutors charged dozens of wealthy parents, including prominent figures in law and business and two Hollywood actresses, with bribing college coaches and testing administrators to get students admitted to elite colleges under false pretences.
Actresses Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Lori Loughlin from Full House, were among 50 charged, accused in the alleged scheme for funnelling at least $US25 million through a fraudulent college-counselling service to get their children into colleges including Georgetown University, Yale University, Stanford University and University of California Los Angeles. While it appeared the universities themselves weren’t involved in the scheme, federal authorities claim it is the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the US Justice Department.
Huffman, 56, will be released after posting a $US250,000 bond. Loughlin, 54, has not yet been arrested but her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, will need to post a $US1 million bond to secure his release.
Prosecutors said the operation involved paying admissions-test administrators to help the students raise their test scores, by either having someone else take the test, or correcting their answers before they were submitted. Prosecutors also said some of the people conspired to bribe varsity coaches and administrators at elite campuses to admit their children as recruited athletes.
Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston field office, said that those charged established a “culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for students trying to get into these schools the right way, through hard work, good grades and community service.”
The admissions consultant, William Singer, pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice on Tuesday afternoon. He allegedly facilitated the fraud through Newport Beach, California-based the Edge College and Career Network LLC.
Mr Singer’s lawyer Donald Heller told reporters the consultant was “remorseful and contrite and wants to move on with his life.”
Coaches and at least one administrator participated, prosecutors said. The former head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Georgetown, a senior associate athletic director, water polo and women’s soccer coaches at the University of Southern California, the men’s soccer coach at UCLA and the Wake Forest University women’s volleyball coach were all charged with racketeering.
The head sailing coach at Stanford University also pleaded guilty to racketeering Tuesday afternoon.
Since the indictment was filed Tuesday morning, Stanford fired Mr Vandemoer, UCLA placed its men’s head soccer coach on leave, Wake Forest put its head volleyball coach on administrative leave and retained outside counsel, USC announced an internal investigation and a broad review of its admissions processes, and the University of Texas in Austin placed its men’s tennis coach on administrative leave. Yale said would continue to co-operate with the investigation.
Prosecutors said the head women’s soccer coach at Yale accepted a $US400,000 bribe in exchange for admitting a candidate as a recruited athlete. The student didn’t even play competitive soccer, according to prosecutors. After the student was admitted, her parents paid a college admissions consultant $US1.2 million.
Officials said the parents spared no expense, with US lawyer Andrew Lelling saying they paid Mr Singer, the consultant, “donations” of between $US200,000 and $US6.5 million for his services, with the most common payment between $US200,000 and $US400,000.
While courting parents to join the scheme, Mr Singer allegedly addressed the reality that elite college admissions isn’t just a matter of merit, but said other avenues to securing an acceptance letter could be more expensive and weren’t a sure thing.
“There is a front door which means you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is ten times as much money. And I’ve created this side door in,” he said in a June 2018 phone call with Gordon Caplan, co-chairman of New York law firm Willkie Farr, according to a transcript of the recorded call included in court documents.
Mr Caplan allegedly paid Mr Singer $US75,000 to have another person take the ACT for his daughter in December, asking that she get a score in the low 30s out of a possible 36.
Mr Caplan said in another recorded call in July, “I’m not worried about the moral issue here. I’m worried about the, if she’scaught doing that, you know, she’s finished.” Mr Caplan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Mr Singer also allegedly helped parents work with coaches to claim admission spots reserved for recruited athletes, staging photos of the teens playing sports or photoshopping images of the teens’ faces onto stock photos of young athletes.
The coaches who allegedly received payments then used the athletic profiles to persuade others at the schools to admit the students, Mr Lelling said.
Mr Singer had long time personal connections to coaches and was good at “calibrating fake credentials to appear realistic but not so good” they would invite scrutiny, Mr Lelling said.
Mr. Lelling said most of the coaches both gave money to their sports programs and kept some for themselves.
Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli also had a paid partnership with Amazon Primestudent where she boasted on Instagram about moving into her university dorm.
According to court records, during the summer of 2017 and the following May, Mr Vandemoer, the Stanford head sailing coach, agreed to designate two of Mr Singer’s clients as recruits in return for payments, including one of $US500,000, to the Stanford sailing program.
Neither student ended up going to Stanford, but Mr Singer still allegedly paid $US160,000 to the sailing program, according to prosecutors.
Mr Vandemoer agreed with Mr Singer that the payment “would serve as a ‘deposit’ for a future student’s purported recruitment,” the federal documents allege.
In a statement Tuesday, Stanford said Mr Vandemoer has been terminated. “Neither student came to Stanford,” the statement said.
“However, the alleged behaviour runs completely counter to Stanford’s values.” The school said it has been cooperating with the investigation.
Prosecutors alleged that charitable organisations were used as fronts for bribes. Parents made the payments in the form of donations to Mr Singer’s non-profit organisation, Key Worldwide Foundation, prosecutors aid.
Greg Abbott, CEO of International Dispensing Co., and his wife, Marcia, were both charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mr. Abbott said his family had spoken to the FBI about the alleged cheating scandal, and on Tuesday called the situation “insane.”
According to an affidavit filed in the case, Mr Abbott allegedly made a $50,000 donation to Mr. Singer’s charity last April in exchange for having someone correct their daughter’s answers after she finished taking the ACT. Prosecutors said the money was wired from an Abbott family Foundation brokerage account.
Another donation, this time for $75,000, was made in September, allegedly in exchange for helping the daughter cheat on SAT mathematics and literature subject tests.
“Literally, we were involved with this guy for our daughter to help out with college counselling and he gets f — arrested,” he said.
“We didn’t know he was doing this s —.” Mr Abbott said the counselling service had a “sketchy set up” in hindsight but had been recommended to the family.
“A network of New York City mothers use this guy and they all say he’s the best,” he said. “He ruined chances of kids getting into school who did years and years of work to get into school on their own.”
Also charged was Bill McGlashan, founder and managing partner of TPG Growth, the arm of the private-equity firm that invests in fast-growing companies, including Airbnb Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc.
TPG did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
With Jennifer Levitz, Douglas Belkin, Erin Ailworth, Brian Costa, Jim Oberman, Melanie Grayce West and Miriam Gottfried.
The Wall Street Journal
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