FBI stumbled on the massive college bribe scandal when an executive tipped them off that the Yale soccer coach offered to sell his daughter a place at the school for $450,000
- Feds pursuing a securities fraud probe were told about bribery scheme by a business executive
- Executive claimed Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith offered to help get his daughter into the school as a recruit in exchange for $450,000
- Meredith resigned in November 2018 and has agreed to plead guilty to charges including wire fraud
- Nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, have been arrested
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The biggest school admissions scandal ever prosecuted began with a tip from an executive investigators were targeting in an unrelated securities fraud probe, it was revealed today.
The unnamed businessman told Boston authorities chasing down the market manipulation scheme that Rudy Meredith, the women’s soccer coach at Yale University, said he would designated the executive’s daughter as a recruit in exchange for cash, the official said.
The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
How it started: Federal investigators working on a securities fraud probe learned from an executive that Rudy Meredith, the Yale women’s soccer coach (pictured in 2016), said he would designated the executive’s daughter as a recruit in exchange for cash
Meredith allegedly told the businessman he would help get his daughter into Yale (pictured) in exchange for $450,000
Investigators recorded a meeting between the executive and the coach at a Boston hotel room in April 2018. During the meeting, which is described in court documents, authorities say Meredith told the father he would help his daughter get into Yale in exchange for $450,000.
Meredith accepted a $2,000 cash downpayment on the spot and gave the executive directions about how to wire the rest of the money, authorities say.
Mastermind: College admissions consultant William ‘Rick’ Singer pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly raking in millions of dollars to get his clients’ kids into elite colleges
Meredith began cooperating with the investigation that same month in the hopes of getting a lesser sentence, prosecutors say in court documents.
The coach, who resigned from Yale in November 2018, has agreed to plead guilty to charges including wire fraud.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the source of the tip. Authorities have not publicly identified the executive whose tip helped uncover the sprawling college-admissions bribery scheme.
At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, many of them prominent in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry and other fields, have been charged in the case known as ‘Operation Varsity Blues.’
They include Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
Loughlin and her husband, designer Massimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 in brides to get their two daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, into USC as crew recruits, even though neither student participated in the sport.
Prosecutors said that parents paid an admissions consultant to bribe coaches and administrators to falsely make their children look like star athletes in various fields, including soccer, sailing and crew, to boost their chances of getting accepted.
Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, as much as $6.5million, to guarantee their children’s admission into colleges like Yale, Stanford, University of Southern California and Wake Forest, officials said.
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Sephora ENDS its partnership with Lori Loughlin’s daughter… Multiple lawsuits are filed for more than $500 billion… ‘He’s shady’: Ringleader in college bribery scandal is a… Lori Loughlin’s daughters Isabella Rose Giannulli and Olivia…
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Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were among the 50 charged in the college cheating scandal that prompted the subsequent lawsuits by students and parents
Loughlin and her husband are accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughters Olivia (left) and Isabella (right) into USC
The consultant also hired ringers to take SATs and ACTs for students, and paid off insiders at testing centers to correct students’ answers, authorities say.
Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling has said that the investigation is continuing and that authorities believe other parents were involved.
The IRS is also investigating, since some parents allegedly disguised the bribes as charitable donations.
The consultant at the heart of the case, William ‘Rick’ Singer, of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in federal court Tuesday in Boston. Singer’s attorney told reporters that he plans to cooperate fully with prosecutors.
On Wednesday, college students and parents filed multiple lawsuits seeking more than $500million against the University of Southern California, Yale and other colleges, saying applicants were denied a fair opportunity for admission because the alleged scheme gave coveted spots to ‘unqualified students.’
THE FULL LIST OF PEOPLE CHARGED WITH COLLEGE ADMITTANCE SCAM
THE STARS
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli spent $500,000 getting their two daughters into USC, according to prosecutors
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli
Actress Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo are among the three most well known names on the list. They have two daughters, Olivia, 20, Isabella, 19, and Mossimo also has a son from a previous relationship. It is not clear which of their children is in college.
Olivia is a YouTube star who has amounted millions of fans online but she is also enrolled at USC, as is their 19-year-old daughter Isabella.
They allegedly paid $50,000 to get their oldest daughter into USC under the guise that she was a crew coxswain when in fact she does not row crew.
Felicity Huffman is accused of paying a $15,000 bribe to get her oldest daughter Sofia into USC
Felicity Huffman
Huffman is best known for her role on Desperate Housewives.
She is married to fellow actor William H. Macy but he has not been charged in the indictment.
The pair have two daughters, Sofia, 18, and Georgia, 16.
Huffman is accused of paying $15,000 to have her daughter’s exam proctored by Mark Riddell.
Riddell was described by authorities as ‘just a really smart guy’ who would either sit tests for students, change their answers afterwards or help them actively while they took it in one of two test centers that was ‘controlled’ by the scheme’s ‘mastermind’ Rick Singer.
Huffman allegedly used the scheme in December 2017 but the indictment does not specify how Riddell allegedly helped her daughter.
She considered using it for her youngest daughter, Georgia, but decided in the end that she did not need to, according to authorities.
THE COLLEGE PROFESSORS, COACHES AND ‘MASTERMIND’
William Rick Singer, the ‘mastermind’
Rick Singer ran The Key, a college preparation business
Singer is accused of leading the scam.
He led a college counseling program and, according to prosecutors, also ran a fake charity through which he funneled bribes.
The scam worked in two ways; he would have people come into the exam to correct students’ answers and he also then bribed sports coaches to offer them scholarships, in some cases for sports they did not even play.
Singer cooperated with authorities as part of the investigation and continued taking bribes after he had been contacted by police.
Some of his conversations were recorded by police who obtained a wire tap to listen in. He is facing a maximum of 65 years behind bars and has pleaded guilty on all counts he was charged with.
It remains unclear if he will be given leniency given his cooperation.
Rudolph Meredith
Meredith is a women’s soccer coach at Yale. In his bio on the college’s website, he is heralded as the ‘winningest’ coach, with 24 seasons under his belt.
Mark Riddell
Riddell is the director of IMG Academy , a college entrance exam preparation company.
Rudolph Meredith, the women’s soccer coach at Yale (left) and Mark Riddell, director of IMG Academy
John Vandemoer
Vandemoer is the head sailing coach at Stanford.
Gordon Ernst
Ernst is the head of women’s tennis at the University of Rhode Island.
He taught at Georgetown in the past and worked as a personal tennis coach for Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, while they were in the White House.
John Vandemoer (left) is the head sailing coach at Stanford. Gordie Ernst was Michelle Obama’s private tennis coach when she was First Lady. He is now the head of women’s tennis at the University of Rhode Island.
Houmayoun Zadeg
Homa H Zadeh is a professor at USC. He is the Associate Professor and Director, Advanced Education Program in Periodontology.
Michael Center
Center is the men’s soccer coach at the University of Texas.
Homa H Zadeh (left) is a professor at USC. Michael Center (right) is the men’s soccer coach at the University of Texas.
Donna Heinel
Heinel is the senior women’s athletics director at USC. She is alleged to have accepted a $50,000 from Lori Loughlin and her husband, among others, for admitting fraudulent tests.
Laura Janke
Janke is a former assistant soccer coach at USC. She allegedly took payment from Loughlin and her husband for their youngest daughter.
Donna Heinel (left) is the senior athletic director at USC. Laura Janke (right) is a former assistant soccer coach
Ali Khosroshahin
Khosroshahin is the head women’s soccer coach at USC.
Jovan Vavic
Vavic is the head coach for the men’s and women’s water polo teams at USC.
Ali Khosroshahin (left) is the head of women’s soccer at USC and Jovan Vavic is the head of the men’s and women’s water polo teams at USC
Igor Dvorskiy
Dvorskiy is the president of the West Hollywood College Preparatory School and he worked at the West Hollywood Test Center where he turned a blind eye as the cheating happened for $10,000 at a time.
Niki Williams
Williams worked as a test administrator at one of the test centers Singer told parents he ‘controlled’. She was a teaching assistant for Jack Yates High School in Houston, Texas.
PARENTS
Bill McGlashan
McGlashan is a prolific private equity investor who is the founder and managing partner of the firm TPG Growth.
He is also at the helm of The Rise Fund, a social impact fund he launched with Bono.
Gregory and Marcia Abbott
New York couple Gregory and Marcia Abbott, 68 and 59, were also named.
Gregory Abbott is the founder and chairman of International Dispensing Corp., a successful food and beverage packaging company.
The couple, who have homes in New York City and Aspen, Colorado, allegedly paid a total of $125,000 to have someone take the ACT and SAT subject tests for their daughter so she could gain entrance to Duke University.
Bill McGlashan and Gregory Abbott are pictured
Gamal Abdelaziz
Abdelaziz stepped down as president and COO of Wynn Resorts in 2016.
He is accused of bribing Donna Heinel, the senior women’s athletics director at USC, to recruit his daughter for the basketball team in 2017.
According to court documents, his daughter played high school basketball but was not gifted enough to get recruited as an athlete so he arranged for her to be one.
He then made a $300,000 ‘donation’ to the fictitious charity run by ‘ringleader’ Rick Singer and then made monthly $20,000 payments directly to Heinel.
His daughter got into the college but never joined the basketball team, according to the documents.
In a phone call with the fixer, they said: ‘I’m not going to tell the IRS anything about the fact that your $300,000 was paid to Donna– Donna Heinel at USC to get [your daughter] into school even though she wasn’t a legitimate basketball player at that level.’
Jane Buckingham
Buckingham is the owner of the now defunct market research firm, Youth Intelligence. She sold the company in 2003.
She is charged in the scheme for allegedly paying $50,000 to have someone else take her son’s ACT exam in July 2018 because he had tonsilitis.
Buckingham sent a handwriting sample for her son to a test taker and had him take a fake exam at home so he wouldn’t know about the fraud, court documents indicate.
Gamal Abdelaziz, the president and COO of Wynn Resorts (left) and Jane Buckingham, the owner of the now defunct market research firm Youth Intelligence
Gordon Caplan
Caplan is a financial attorney and partner at the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City. He lives in Connecticut.
He allegedly paid $75,000 to have Singer arrange a proctor to corrected his daughter’s answers after she took the ACT in November or December 2018.
Robert Flaxman
Flaxman is the CEO, Co-founder, Crown Realty & Development, Inc, a real estate company based in Orange County.
Gordon Caplan (left) is a financial attorney and partner at the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City. Robert Flaxman (right) is the CEO, Co-founder, Crown Realty & Development
Agustin Huneeus
Vineyard owner Huneeus owns a range of wines that are produced in Napa Valley.
He allegedly participated in both the college entrance exam cheating scheme and the college recruitment scheme for his daughter in 2017 and 2018 by conspiring to bribe Heinel and Jovan Vavic, the USC water polo coach, to facilitate his daughter’s admission to USC as a purported water polo recruit, according to the indictment.
Elisabeth Kimmel is the former president of Midwest Television. She sold it in 2017 for $325million. Agustin Huneeus, whose family owns vineyards in Napa Valley, was also charged
Elisabeth Kimmel
Lis and Manuel Henriquez
Kimmel, of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the former president of Midwest Television. She sold it in 2017 for $325million.
She allegedly used the scheme to get her daughter into Georgetown and her son into USC by pretending the former was a tennis player and the latter was a pole vaulter.
Kimmel ultimately facilitated $475,000 in payments to KWF, according to the affidavit.
Toby MacFarlane
MacFarlane and his wife Christy are well known on the San Diego social and charity circuit.
He sits on the board of multiple companies and the family has their own trust but it is not exactly clear what he does.
Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez
Marjorie Klapper
Diane and Todd Blake
I-Hsin “Joey” Chen
Amy and Gregory Colburn
Marci Palatella
Peter Jan Sartorio
Stephen Semprevivo
Devin Sloane
John Wilson
Robert Zangrillo
Steven Masera
William Ferguson
Martin Fox
Jorge Salcedo
Bruce and Davina Isackson
Mikaela Sanford
David Sidoo
Michelle Janavs
Douglas Hodge
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