Dozens Indicted in College Admissions Scam

Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among 50 parents, coaches, and administrators indicted this week after participating in a nationwide scheme to get students accepted into elite universities without the required credentials.

“This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady applications of wealth combined with fraud,” explains US Attorney Andrew Lelling. “There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy, and I’ll add that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”

The scheme was orchestrated by William “Rick” Singer and his fake non-profit “Edge College and Career Network.” According to prosecutors, Singer was paid millions of dollars to guarantee children admission into prestigious universities like Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, and UCLA.

Singer’s tactics included:

• Hiring proctors to take exams or correct false answers
• Convincing psychologists that children required more time on tests due to learning disabilities
• Bribing coaches to give children undeserved athletic scholarships

In describing his business to a client, Singer said, “What we do is help the wealthiest families in the US get their kids into school…my families want a guarantee.”

Singer has been charged with racketeering, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. He is expected to plead guilty to all charges.

According to court documents, Loughlin paid Singer $500,000 to guarantee her two daughters’ acceptance to USC through a crew team scholarship despite neither daughter having ever participated in crew. Huffman and her husband paid Singer $15,000 to correct their daughter’s answers on a college entrance exam.

Both women  were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud.

“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest genuinely talented student was rejected,” notes Lelling.

Author’s Note: Rather than prepare their children for college and follow the rules, Loughlin and others decided to use their wealth to give their children an unfair advantage.

Unfortunately, if these kids weren’t smart enough to get into an elite university then they probably don’t have the brains to make it to graduation. In most cases, the students didn’t even know their parents were cheating for them.

Editor’s Note: I hope the colleges in question have the fortitude to kick these “students” out. This is the kind of snobbish elitist crime that can and should follow them for a long time.