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crogin Profile
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FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-accuses-wealthy-parents-including-celebrities-in-college-entrance-bribery-scheme/ar-BBUGhsh?OCID=ansmsnnews11#page=2

If they have to bribe their way in they'll have to continue to cough up more dough to keep them in. Who are they going to bribe to give them a job based on their phony degrees? Of course they can always hire the kids themselves like the Donald. Especially if you an charge it to the taxpayers!

quote:

Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky
  
The Justice Department on Tuesday charged 50 people — including two television stars — with being part of a long-running bribery scheme to get privileged children with lackluster grades into big-name colleges and universities.

The alleged crimes included cheating on entrance exams, as well as bribing college officials to say certain students were coming to compete on athletic teams when those students were not in fact athletes, officials said. Numerous schools were targeted, including Georgetown University, Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and UCLA, among others.

Boston’s U.S. attorney, Andrew Lelling, called it the largest-ever college admissions scam prosecuted by the Justice Department. Of the 50 people charged as part of the FBI’s Operation Varsity Blues, 33 were parents, officials said, warning that the investigation is ongoing and that others could be charged.

The massive scheme was discovered accidentally by the FBI — while working an unrelated undercover operation, officials said. That tip led to a sprawling, nationwide corruption probe.

“These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege,” said Lelling. “This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud. There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy
, and I’ll add there will not be a separate criminal justice system, either.”

None of the students were charged because prosecutors said their parents were the scheme’s principal actors.
Court filings released Tuesday paint an ugly picture of privileged parents committing crimes to get their children into selective schools. Among those charged are actresses Felicity Huffman, best known for her role on the television show “Desperate Housewives,” and Lori Loughlin, who appeared on “Full House,” according to court documents. A representative for Loughlin declined to comment. A representative for Huffman did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Two participants in the scheme are scheduled to enter guilty pleas Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors said. One is William Singer, a well-connected college admissions adviser and the central figure in the scheme, officials said. He is accused of disguising the bribery scheme as a charity, enabling parents to deduct the bribes from their taxes.

{All that and tax fraud too!{

Singer is with taking about $25 million from 2011 to 2018 — paying some of it to college coaches or standardized-testing officials for their help rigging the admissions process and pocketing the rest, according to the criminal complaint. He allegedly disguised the money using a nonprofit, the Key Worldwide Foundation, prosecutors said, characterizing it as a slush fund for bribes.

One of the cooperating witnesses, according to court documents, is a former head coach of Yale’s women’s soccer team, who pleaded guilty in the case nearly a year ago and has since been helping FBI agents gather evidence. That coach, Rudolph Meredith, allegedly took a $400,000 bribe to pretend to place a student on the team and help get her into the school, even though the student did not play competitive soccer, officials said. The student’s parents paid $1.2 million in bribes, officials said.

Some of the defendants are accused of bribing college entrance exam administrators to facilitate cheating — by having a smarter student take the test, providing students with answers to exams or correcting their answers after they had completed the exams, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were accused of paying $500,000 in bribes so their two daughters would be designated as recruits for the University of Southern California crew team — even though they were not part of the team. That helped the pair get into USC, according to the complaint.

Some of the money was directed to Donna Heinel, a USC athletics official, the complaint alleges. In a statement, USC officials said the school is cooperating with the federal investigation and has launched its own review.

“We understand that the government believes that illegal activity was carried out by individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university,” the statement says. “USC is conducting an internal investigation and will take employment actions as appropriate. USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme. Additionally, the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.”

Huffman is accused of paying $15,000 — disguised as a charitable donation — to the Key Worldwide Foundation so her oldest daughter could participate in the scam. A confidential informant told investigators that he advised Huffman he could arrange for a third party to correct her daughter’s answers on the SAT after she took it. She ended up scoring a 1420 — 400 points higher than she had gotten on a PSAT taken a year earlier, according to court documents.

Huffman also contemplated running a similar scam to help her younger daughter but ultimately did not pursue it, the complaint alleges.

Other defendants include William McGlashan, chief executive and founder of a private-equity firm, and Jane Buckingham, chief executive of a boutique marketing firm in Los Angeles. Last June, Buckingham agreed to make a “donation” to Key Worldwide of $50,000 in exchange for someone taking a college entrance test on her son’s behalf the following month, authorities say.

The FBI secretly recorded Buckingham talking to one of the people arranging the test for her son. On the tape, according to the complaint, Buckingham talks about the complicated logistics of cheating on the test and said: “I know this is craziness — I know it is. And then I need you to get him into USC, and then I need you to cure cancer and [make peace] in the Middle East.”

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3/12/2019, 7:47 pm Link to this post PM crogin
 
Philer Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


Seeing Felicity Huffman accused of a felony is something I didn't think I would see. I like her as both an actress and a person. It's certainly a little surprising to see her caught up in this scandal. It seems to be a classic case of doing a little too much for one of your children.

The way to improve your scores on an SAT test is to study for the test. Something I didn't do before I took it. It's surprising that Felicity would have wanted her daughter to get into a university using false SAT scores when all she had to do was study for the test.

Unless of course her daughter is truly unqualified to attend a university like Yale.
3/12/2019, 9:31 pm Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
katie5445 Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


I read a statement online that her daughter made and apologized before, this was today's event something like I'm not here for an education but to party. I guess in their circle it is important to have a Ivy league degree by paying for it rather than earn it., so their friends/family will be impressed.Shame on those parents for setting such a gross example.
3/13/2019, 3:10 am Link to this post PM katie5445 Blog
 
Philer Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


Felicity appears to be the kind of person who wouldn't want her daughter to do well on a SAT test by paying someone to see to it that she got phony and elevated scores.

At least she didn't do the same sort of thing with her other daughter.
3/13/2019, 4:49 am Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


Are you friends? What makes you think she "appears to be that kind of person.?" I have no clue in my wildest imagination that she is that type of person or not, You are worse than the rag mags.
3/13/2019, 9:32 am Link to this post PM katie5445 Blog
 
Philer Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


quote:

katie5445 wrote:

Are you friends? What makes you think she "appears to be that kind of person.?" I have no clue in my wildest imagination that she is that type of person or not, You are worse than the rag mags.



No, we are not friends but she seems to be the kind of person I wouldn't mind calling a friend. Of course she is an actress and I realize that what you see on a TV talk show is not necessarily the real person.
3/13/2019, 5:22 pm Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
crogin Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


Philer: Seeing Felicity Huffman accused of a felony is something I didn't think I would see. I like her as both an actress and a person. It's certainly a little surprising to see her caught up in this scandal.

katie: Are you friends? What makes you think she "appears to be that kind of person.?"

Philer: No, we are not friends but she seems to be the kind of person I wouldn't mind calling a friend.

cro : Your idea of a good friend is an unscrupulous crook? Well at least she's a Christian crook and not a Muslim crook, right Philer?

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3/13/2019, 7:21 pm Link to this post PM crogin
 
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quote:

cro : Your idea of a good friend is an unscrupulous crook? Well at least she's a Christian crook and not a Muslim crook, right Philer?



Friends are generally not perfect people. Besides, perhaps she has reformed. She didn't follow the same procedure with her second daughter.
3/13/2019, 9:47 pm Link to this post PM Philer Blog
 
crogin Profile
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Ain't Entitlement Grand!


https://www.aol.com/article/entertainment/2019/03/13/felicity-huffman-released-on-bail-in-college-admissions-prob/23691241/

quote:

HuffPost US
SANJANA KARANTH
Mar 13th 2019 9:12AM

Actress Felicity Huffman was released on a $250,000 bond Tuesday night after her arrest in a nationwide college admissions scandal in which she was accused of using bribes to ensure her daughter attends a top college.

A magistrate judge in Los Angeles said the “Desperate Housewives” star could be released as long as she remained inside the United States, according to The Associated Press. She was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.

Huffman, 56, is accused of paying $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation to enable her elder daughter to cheat on the SAT, which she took in December 2017. Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, who has not been charged, had arranged to do the same for their younger daughter but then allegedly deciding not to.


Court documents showed that Huffman and Macy met with a cooperating witness at their home in Los Angeles, where the witness told the couple he “controlled” a testing center for college entrance exams and could have their daughter’s SAT answers secretly changed, AP reported. The couple allegedly agreed to the plan.


Huffman opened the door early Tuesday morning to FBI agents who had their guns drawn, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source familiar with the incident. She spent several hours in federal custody before appearing in court to hear her charges. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told the L.A. Times that the agency did not use a tactical team to arrest the actress but that FBI agents “are armed and may draw their weapons as a precautionary measure.”

Huffman and “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin are two of at least 40 celebrities, executives and athletic officials charged Tuesday in a massive bribery scheme, where prosecutors said wealthy parents paid up to $6 million in bribes to college coaches and workers at testing centers to help their children get admission into elite, selective colleges. Loughlin was not taken into custody Tuesday and, along with her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, is accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California by having them falsely appear as athletic recruits.


Chris Flanagan

@ChrisFlanaganTV
 #Breaking Actresses Felicity Huffman & Lori Laughlin charged in college entrance exam cheating scandal. @boston25


William “RIck” Singer, the founder of an admissions consulting company, pleaded guilty Tuesday to running the scheme.

Huffman’s next court date is March 29 in Boston.

A representative of Huffman did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

 
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.




Philer says: Friends are generally not perfect people.



cro: Some are more imperfect than others, Philer!


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3/13/2019, 10:38 pm Link to this post PM crogin
 
snowpixie Profile
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Re: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme


 kind of funny that the shameless star William Macy had a wife that shameless.

This really backfired, now their kids will be know as the underachievers. so what happens now?do they get kicked out of college they fraudulently got into.

my brother shares this link with me.

https://deadspin.com/here-are-all-the-incredible-details-from-the-college-ad-1833236579?fbclid=IwAR1TKnJAzHA4f0kNzN2pHLZh05M-wv6gnzTS7-rHgqTwpMHQM5cSi4tV8rY

Last edited by snowpixie, 3/14/2019, 5:15 am
3/14/2019, 5:08 am Link to this post PM snowpixie Blog
 


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