Fifty people — including wealthy parents, athletic coaches and test proctors — were busted Tuesday in a coast-to-coast college admissions scandal that saw underqualified students fraudulently accepted into some of the top schools in the nation.
In court papers unsealed in jurisdictions across the country, 33 deep-pocketed parents are accused of plunking down more than $25 million from 2011 to 2018 to cheat their way into admissions at schools like Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, Wake Forest and the University of Southern California for their academically mediocre kids.
At the center of the widespread scheme is William “Rick” Singer, a well-connected college prep expert who allegedly funneled the cash through a sham nonprofit and paid off cohorts to either fudge SAT or ACT scores or allow applicants to apply as a coveted sports recruit.
Some parents allegedly paid as much as $6.5 million to Singer — but the average rate to nab a guaranteed spot at a school was between $250,000 and $400,000.
“There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy and there will not be a separate criminal justice system either,” said Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling, who announced the bombshell charges at a press conference Tuesday.
“We’re not talking about donating a building so a school is more likely to take your son or daughter. We’re talking about deception and fraud. Fake test scores. Fake athletic credentials. Fake photographs. Bribed college officials.”
All told, 50 people face federal charges, including associates of Singer and 13 college coaches. Investigators stressed that the probe is ongoing.
Singer was charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to defraud the US. He pleaded guilty and is cooperating with authorities.
Most of his associates and the college coaches are charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering.
The parents uniformly face charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud for using their deep pockets to pull strings for their kids.
Among them are TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.
Other notable defendants include Gordon Caplan, the co-chairman of law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, and Gamal Abdelaziz, a former senior excecutive at Wynn Resorts.
Singer, 58, who ran a college counseling center called Edge College and Career Network in California, passed some of the bribe money to crooked coaches and business associates, including two college entrance exam administrators, prosecutors said.
The alleged scam had two components. One focused on academics and involved Singer paying bribes to test proctors to change the students’ answers on their ACT or SAT exams — or have a test taker, co-defendant Mark Riddell, take the test in their name, the feds said.
Caplan, for example, allegedly made a $75,000 “donation” to Singer’s Key Worldwide Foundation to arrange for Riddell — who is identified as Cooperating Witness 2 in court papers — to proctor his daughter’s ACT exam and then change the answers to the correct ones when she was done.
Singer boasted about his success rate to Caplan, saying he’s greased the wheels for nearly 800 other families, prosecutors allege.
“OK, so, who we are — what we do is we help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school,” Singer pitched to Caplan in a June 15 call, according to court papers. “It’s the home run of home runs.”
“And it works?” Caplan pressed.
“Every time,” Singer said.
During his conversations with Singer, Caplan allegedly floated the idea of his daughter attending Cornell — though it’s unclear whether she got accepted there or anywhere else.
Caplan was released on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond following a brief appearance Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. He declined to comment.
In the second scheme Singer ran, he helped to create “impressive” athletic profiles of students so they could apply as athletes — even though they never played the sport, Lelling said.
“Some simply never showed up for the athletics, some showed up with an injury and I think some played briefly and then quit,” he said.
The coaches charged include John Vandemoer, the head sailing coach at Stanford, and Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, the former women’s soccer coach at Yale.
Four from USC were also charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, including former women’s soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin; ex-assistant soccer coach Laura Janke; men’s water polo coach Jovan Vavic; and senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel.
Meredith allegedly took bribes to fast-track two teen girls to the Ivy League school by allowing them to apply as soccer recruits — despite knowing that one of them didn’t actually play the sport.
In one case, Singer cut Meredith a check for $400,000 from his KWF account, while the parents of the applicant paid Singer $1.2 million in multiple installments, according to court documents.
Meredith, who is facing counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, resigned from Yale in November. He is expected to plead guilty, as is Riddell.
Both Singer, of Newport Beach, Calif., and Vandemoer pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy on Tuesday.
“All of these things, and many more things, I did,” Singer admitted in Boston federal court. “I created a side door that would guarantee families would get in.”
Singer, who has been cooperating with prosecutors since September, also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for tipping off several people about the investigation, the feds said. Authorities seized the $5.2 million in his KWF bogus charity account.
Singer faces up to 20 years prison at his June 19 sentencing.
It is unclear what, if anything, the colleges involved will do about the students who got in through deceptive practices of their parents, including at least five who already graduated.
Vandermoer, meanwhile, admitted to accepting $270,000 in contributions to Sanford’s sailing program to recommend two prospective students for admission as competitive sailors — even though they weren’t.
In court, he denied pocketing any of the money for himself, saying he used the cash to buy new materials for his team.
After the charges were announced, Stanford announced it had fired Vandemoer. USC said it canned Heinel and Vavic.
USC said it was in the process of identifying any funds it received in the alleged scheme.
Lelling said none of the schools where students were admitted under shady pretenses were involved in Singer’s scam. Many of the students were unaware of their parents’ influence in their admission to college.
“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” said Lelling, who hinted that more arrests could be coming. “For every student admitted through fraud an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected.”
He said the parents’ purported “donations” to Singer’s charity allowed them to “mask the true nature of payments” as well as “take a tax write-off at the end of the year.”
The dozens of arrests spanned six states on both coasts as a result of a 10-month investigation dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta.
Bonavolonta said the real victims in the case were the “hard working students” who were robbed “of their right at a fair shot of getting into elite universities.”
The College Board, the nonprofit that administers the SATs, promised that those who facilitate cheating on the exam would be held accountable — “regardless of their income or status.”
“The College Board has a comprehensive, robust approach to combat cheating, and we work closely with law enforcement as part of those efforts,” the College Board said in a statement. “We will always take all necessary steps to ensure a level playing field for the overwhelming majority of test takers who are honest and play by the rules.”
Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory and Post Wires