At Least 50 People Charged In College Admissions Scandal

Dozens of people have been charged in a scam aimed at getting children of the rich and famous into elite colleges. The scam involved cheating on entrance exams and fake athletic credentials.

To the news now that dozens of people have been indicted in a college admissions cheating scam. Among them wealthy parents, including celebrities such as actress Felicity Huffman, also college sports coaches and people who administer the standardized college admissions tests. Kirk Carapezza has details from WGBH in Boston.

KIRK CARAPEZZA, BYLINE: At least 50 people have been charged with participating in alleged conspiracy that involve cheating on college entrance exams, like the SAT and ACT. Some of their children were admitted to elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, UCLA and the University of Texas, by bribing coaches.

ANDREW LELLING: We're not talking about donating a building so that a school's more likely to take your son or daughter.

CARAPEZZA: At the federal courthouse in Boston, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling announced the charges in what he called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.

LELLING: We're talking about deception and fraud - fake test scores, fake athletic credentials, fake photographs, bribed college officials.

CARAPEZZA: Here's how Lelling says it worked. Between 2011 and 2018, wealthy parents paid Rick Singer, the head of a foundation and a for-profit admissions consulting service, more than $25 million. Singer would then use that money to pay a ringer to take the SAT or ACT for children or correct their answers. He'd also bribe Division 1 coaches.

LELLING: Singer's foundation purported to be a charitable organization but was actually a front Singer used to launder the money that parents paid him.

CARAPEZZA: In return for bribes ranging from 200- to $400,000, coaches agreed to pretend that certain applicants were recruited competitive athletes.

LELLING: In many instances, Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports.

CARAPEZZA: In other cases, he helped them use stock photos pulled from the Internet, Photoshopping the faces of applicants onto the bodies of athletes.

JOSEPH BONAVOLONTA: Make no mistake. This is not a case where parents were acting in the best interests of their children.

CARAPEZZA: That's Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI. He says more than 30 parents flaunted their wealth to cheat the system and set their children up with the best education their money could buy.

BONAVOLONTA: Some spent anywhere from 200,000 to $6.5 million for guaranteed admission. Their actions were, without a doubt, insidious, selfish and shameful.

CARAPEZZA: None of the schools named in the court filings are under investigation for fraud. The U.S. attorney's office says college admissions officers were tricked. College admissions counselors say the real victims in this case are hardworking students who did everything they could to set themselves up for success in this country's crazy college admissions process.

ELIZABETH HEATON: The scale of it is utterly shocking.

CARAPEZZA: Elizabeth Heaton is with the company College Coach in Watertown, Mass. She works with students and families trying to navigate college admissions.

HEATON: There aren't enough slots for everybody. And it's hard to take - to stomach the idea that a couple of those slots were taken by people who bought their way in.

CARAPEZZA: In federal court, Rick Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. Stanford has fired its sailing coach, who pleaded guilty. In a statement, Yale says the university has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its former women's soccer coach, and it's cooperating in the investigation. UCLA says it has placed its men's soccer coach on leave for allegedly taking bribes and, in a statement, says the charges against him are deeply disturbing. For NPR News, I'm Kirk Carapezza in Boston.</s>A fast-moving college admissions scandal moved from bombshell indictments to guilty pleas in a matter of hours, yet the full fallout from the federal case against the rich and famous could take months or more to unfold.

Big names such as actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin headline the list of some 50 people charged in documents released Tuesday that describe a scheme to cheat the admissions process at eight sought-after schools. The parents bribed college coaches and other insiders to get their children into selective schools, authorities said.

At the center of the scheme was admissions consultant William "Rick" Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network of Newport Beach, California, authorities said. Singer pleaded guilty and his lawyer, Donald Heller, said his client intends to cooperate fully with prosecutors and is "remorseful and contrite and wants to move on with his life."

Prosecutors said that parents paid Singer big money from 2011 up until just last month to bribe coaches and administrators to falsely make their children look like star athletes to boost their chances of getting accepted. The consultant also hired ringers to take college entrance exams for students, and paid off insiders at testing centers to correct students' answers.

Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and some as much as $6.5 million to guarantee their children's admission, officials said.

"These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege," U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said.

At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents were charged. Dozens, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning star of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," were arrested by midday Tuesday. Huffman posted a $250,000 bond after an appearance in federal court in Los Angeles. Her husband, actor William H. Macy, has not been charged, though an FBI agent stated in an affidavit that he was in the room when Huffman first heard the pitch from a scam insider.

It was unclear when the "Full House" star Loughlin would turn herself in. Loughlin's husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was released in Los Angeles after posting a $1 million bond.

On Wednesday, a Silicon Valley hedge fund announced that it is replacing its head after he became ensnared in the scandal.

Manuel Henriquez, who was also the top executive investment giant PIMCO until 2016, will be replaced as CEO and chairman of Hercules Capital in Palo Alto, California. Henriquez was arrested in New York City on Tuesday and released on $500,000 bail. Shares of the hedge fund plunged 9 percent.

Hercules said that Henriquez will still hold a seat on the board and will serve as an adviser.

The coaches worked at schools such as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles.

Stanford's sailing coach John Vandemoer pleaded guilty Tuesday in Boston. A former Yale soccer coach pleaded guilty before the documents went public and helped build the case against others.

No students were charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on. Several of the colleges involved made no mention of taking any action against the students.

Several defendants, including Huffman, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

"For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected," Lelling said.

Lelling said the investigation is continuing and authorities believe other parents were involved. The IRS is also investigating, since some parents allegedly disguised the bribes as charitable donations.

The colleges themselves are not targets, the prosecutor said. A number of the institutions moved quickly to fire or suspend the coaches and distance their name from the scandal, portraying themselves as victims. Stanford fired the sailing coach, and USC dropped its water polo coach and an athletic administrator. UCLA suspended its soccer coach, and Wake Forest did the same with its volleyball coach.</s>The Justice Department on Tuesday charged 50 people - including two television stars - with participating in a multimillion dollar bribery scheme that enabled privileged students with lackluster grades to attend prestigious colleges and universities.

The alleged crimes included cheating on entrance exams and bribing college officials to say certain students were athletic recruits 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 US. attorney, Andrew Lelling, called it the largest-ever college admissions scam prosecuted by the Justice Department. Of the 50 people charged in the FBI's Operation Varsity Blues, 33 were parents, officials said, warning that the investigation is ongoing and that others could be charged.

The scheme was discovered accidentally by the FBI while working an unrelated undercover operation about a year ago, 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."

No 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 otherwise unlikely to accept them.

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." A representative for Loughlin declined to comment. A representative for Huffman did not return messages seeking comment.

Others arrested Tuesday include a private equity executive in northern California, a senior lawyer at a major law firm in New York, and a public relations executive in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said they took part in a criminal conspiracy to bribe test officials and college sports officials.

In the wake of the charges, universities began firing or placing on leave some of the accused coaches.

The scheme's chief architect, William Singer, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday. Officials described Singer as a well-connected college admissions adviser, and say he disguised the bribery scheme as a charity, enabling parents to deduct the bribes from their taxes.

Singer was charged 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, which prosecutors described as a slush fund for bribes.

Singer pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy charges for racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He had been cooperating since September. Prosecutors said that a month after he came to the government's side, Singer alerted several people under investigation about the inquiry - which earned him the obstruction charge. Lawyers for Singer did not respond to requests for comment.

Another defendant is Gordon Caplan, co-chairman of the prestigious international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Caplan did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did his firm.

Court papers charge that in one secretly recorded conversation, Caplan asked Singer: "If somebody catches this, what happens?"

"The only one who can catch it is if you guys tell somebody," Singer replied.

"I'm not going to tell anybody," Caplan said, and the two men laughed, according to the court papers.

Two California parents paid Singer in the form of Facebook stock - 2,150 shares worth $251,159 at the time of the bribe in July 2016, according to court papers. Those parents claimed that payment as a charitable donation, the papers said.

Early in the investigation, the FBI was able to flip Yale's former women's soccer coach, who provided evidence against others, officials said. Rudolph Meredith pleaded guilty nearly a year ago, after prosecutors gathered evidence he took a $400,000 bribe to pretend that one prospective student was a recruit, despite the fact that the student in question did not play competitive soccer. The student's parents paid $1.2 million in bribes, officials said.

Yale's president, Peter Salovey, sent a letter to the Yale community calling the allegations "an affront to our university's deeply held values of inclusion and fairness. I want to assure our community," it says, "that I am committed to making certain the integrity of the admissions and athletic recruitment processes is not undermined again. As the investigation unfolds, the university may take further actions."

Prosecutors also charged Georgetown's former head tennis coach, Gordon Ernst. Authorities said he made $950,000 promoting several students as potential tennis recruits - when they were not tennis players of that caliber.

For example, prosecutors alleged, Ernst flagged a California couple's daughter as a "potential spot," and her application falsely indicated she had played club tennis through high school and achieved a Top 50 ranking in the U.S. Tennis Association's junior girls category from her sophomore through her senior years. In fact, she had not played at any Tennis Association tournaments in high school, officials said.

"At her best," prosecutors wrote, "she appears to have ranked 207th in Northern California in the under-12 girls division, with an overall win/loss record of 2-8."

In a statement, Georgetown said the school was "deeply disappointed" to learn of the criminal charges against Ernst, and said he "has not coached our tennis team since December 2017, following an internal investigation that found he had violated University rules concerning admissions. Georgetown cooperated fully with the government's investigation."

After leaving Georgetown, Ernst was hired as the University of Rhode Island's tennis coach. The school said Tuesday he had been placed on administrative leave.

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.

Jovan Vavic, the former water polo coach at USC, was charged with taking bribes to pretend students flagged by Singer were recruits for the team. Prosecutors alleged Singer paid private school tuition payments for Vavic's children, under the guide of a fabricated scholarship. Vavic did not return an email seeking comment.

USC said Tuesday that Heinel and Vavic had been fired.

"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 . . . the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward."

Besides fake athletic credentials, the other main thrust of Singer's schemes involved cheating on college entrance exams. Sometimes, that was done by paying a 36-year-old Florida man, Mark Riddell, to take the tests for students. Riddell was so proficient at the exams that he could get a perfect score, or calibrate his answers to get very high marks, but not a perfect score, the U.S. attorney said. Riddell also agreed to plead guilty in the case and cooperate with investigators, according to officials. Riddell did not immediately return messages, and no attorney was listed for him in court records.

Other defendants are accused of bribing college entrance exam administrators to facilitate cheating - in some cases, 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.

Prosecutors said a key element of the test-cheating scheme was to make arrangements for the tests to be administered privately over a two-day period, making it easier for Riddell stand in for the students, or for a corrupt test administrator to fix the answers.

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, a senior executive at a global private equity firm, TPG Growth, which is a major investor in the ride-share service Uber and the music-streaming app Spotify.

A TPG spokesman said "as a result of the charges of personal misconduct against Bill McGlashan," he has been placed on "indefinite administrative leave effective immediately."

According to the criminal charges against McGlashan, he and Singer agreed to trick admissions officials at USC into believing McGlashan's son was a kicker for a football team - even though his high school didn't have a football team. Singer offered to edit an image of the child's head onto a photo of a football kicker, officials alleged. As they discussed it, McGlashan said the situation was "pretty funny," court documents say. "The way the world works these days is unbelievable."</s>Tuesday’s college admissions scandal story had a bit of everything a late night host could ask for: accusations of bribery and test cheating, a ’90s movie reference and, of course, Aunt Becky. And Stephen Colbert was ready.

“You know how conspiracy theorists say everything is rigged for the wealthy and famous?” Colbert said. “Well, as a wealthy, famous person, let me just respond by saying, ‘You’re absolutely right.’”

The comedian used the opening monologue of his late-night show Tuesday to poke fun at the case by the Justice Department, which charged 50 people in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme that targeted schools including Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Southern California.

The first clue that tipped off the FBI, the comic said, was an essay question on the college application.

"1. Reflect on an accomplishment that sparked personal growth and/or list your parents’ credit card number. What prompted your choice? What is the 3-digit security code?”

The FBI was also a source of humor. Agency officials described the parents allegedly involved in the bribery scheme as “a catalogue of wealth and privilege.”

"I get that once a month from Anthropologie,” Colbert quipped, referencing the retailer.

Then there was the name of the sting: Operation Varsity Blues.

“Named of course,” Colbert said, “for the scandal where at 22-year-old James Van Der Beek tried to scam us into believing he was in high school. Back to the creek, Dawson.” (Van Der Beek would have his own jokes about the reference.)

After a brief description of the college consultant, William “Rick” Singer, who federal authorities say orchestrated the scheme, the late night host got to the celebrities.

The first was actress Felicity Huffman, who is married to fellow Emmy-winning-actor William H. Macy.

When he then brought up Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on the television show “Full House,” the audience reacted with some doleful surprise.

“I know it’s shocking but this is nothing new,” Colbert said. “I mean back in the ’90s, Loughlin was part of a notorious scheme where they made a pair of twins pretend to be one person.”

"No one knew. No one knew. Millions of dollars ripped off.”

[Loughlin has been embroiled in an alleged school admissions scam before — on ‘Full House’]

To finish, Colbert examined the way the alleged scammers created the impression that certain students were athletic recruits, which included Photoshopping the face of a prospective student onto the picture of an athlete.

“One applicant to Stanford,” Colbert joked, “claimed he played shooting guard in ‘Space Jam.’ ”

Students also were allegedly provided test answers or a surrogate took the exam in their place.

“Okay, kids, before the test let’s take attendance,” the comedian said, “starting with the 40-year-old man with a beard. Your name?

Between the jokes, Colbert slipped in some serious commentary: Suspects may have stolen other people’s opportunities, and they allegedly committed tax fraud by taking tax deductions for donating to the fake charity used to pay the bribes.

But there was some good to come out of the scandal, said Colbert.

“So Donald Trump is not involved,” said the longtime critic of the president. “Sort of refreshing in a horrible way.”

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

Before Lori Loughlin’s alleged cheating scandal, daughter Olivia Jade made her life at USC a YouTube brand

From ‘master coach’ to a bribery probe: A college consultant who went off the rails

Actors, designers, distillery owners: Here are some of those charged in the college admissions scheme</s>The massive college admissions scam that snared 50 people in a federal indictment now appears to have cost one of the two famous actresses a major contract.

Lori Loughlin, known to many as Aunt Becky from the television show "Full House," was dropped from the Hallmark Channel where she has been featured in a number of movies in recent years, the company said in a statement.

"We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations," the Hallmark Channel's parent company Crown Media announced Thursday afternoon. "We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including Garage Sale Mysteries, an independent third party production."

No more of Loughlin's work will air on the network, including shows that have already been filmed.

Loughlin appeared in court Wednesday and was released on a $1 million secure bond. According to court documents, she and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, "agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team -- despite the fact that they did not participate in crew -- thereby facilitating their admission to USC."

Mona Shafer Edwards

Loughlin isn't the only one in the family to lose work over the scandal. Sephora announced Thursday that they were dropping their partnership with Loughlin's daughter, Olivia Jade, who is a popular YouTube vlogger and a freshman at the University of Southern California (USC).

"After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately," the makeup company announced in a statement.

FilmMagic/Getty Images, FILE

Those directly involved in the federal criminal case are not the only ones who are entering the legal fray over the college admissions scheme. Now a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Northern California federal court by two students at Stanford University, one of the eight elite colleges named in the legal action, all of which had associated individuals implicated in the bribery case.

In the suit, students Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods claimed they both went through the legitimate and rigorous admissions process to Stanford and were "never informed that the process of admission was an unfair, rigged process, in which rich parents could buy their way into the university through bribery."

The suit also names as defendants the University of Southern California, UCLA, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas, Wake Forest University, Yale University and Georgetown University.

The college admissions scam investigation found that people associated with various athletic teams at each of those schools were involved in getting students admission.

Olsen, according to the lawsuit, applied to Yale University in 2017, submitting "stellar" standardized test scores, and a glowing profile that included being a talented athlete and dancer.

AP

Olsen noted that she paid an application fee of approximately $80, according to the suit.

"Had she known that the system at Yale University was warped and rigged by fraud, she would not have spent the money to apply to the school," the lawsuit states. "She also did not receive what she paid for — a fair admissions consideration process."

Olsen contends she had been damaged by the admissions scandal because her degree from Stanford "is now not worth as much as it was before, because prospective employers may now question whether she was admitted to the university on her own merits, versus having parents who were willing to bribe school officials."

Stanford University said the lawsuit "is without merit."

"We take the issues raised through the events of this week very seriously. While we continue to closely examine our policies and processes to see if improvements should be made, we stand behind the integrity of our admissions process," the university said in a statement.

ABC News' Meghan Keneally contributed to this report.</s>Actress Felicity Huffman has been released on a $250,000 (£191,000) bail bond after appearing in court in connection with an alleged university admissions scam in the US.

The Hollywood star, best known for her leading role in Desperate Housewives, was among more than 40 people, including fellow actress Lori Loughlin, charged as part of a police investigation on Tuesday.

It is alleged that wealthy parents allegedly bribed college coaches and insiders at testing centres to help get their children into some of the most elite universities in the country, including Stanford and Yale.

Authorities have called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the US Justice Department, with the parents accused of paying an estimated $25 million (£19 million) in bribes.

In court in LA, Huffman looked repeatedly at her husband, actor William H Macy, during the proceedings.

The whereabouts of Full House star Loughlin, who was charged along with her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are not clear.

A magistrate judge in Los Angeles set a $1 million (£760,000) bond for Giannulli, and he and Huffman were both told to surrender their passports.

What are the details of the alleged scam?

More than 40 people have been charged over the alleged scheme, in which wealthy parents are said to have paid bribes to help get their children into America's top universities.

At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, many of them prominent in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry and other fields, were charged.

"These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege," prosecutor Andrew Lelling said as he announced the results of the fraud and conspiracy investigation, code-named Operation Varsity Blues, on Tuesday.

Among the parents charged are Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

The coaches charged worked at universities including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

The central figure in the scheme has been identified as admissions consultant William "Rick" Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network of Newport Beach, California.

He has pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

No students have been charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on.

The star, who was nominated for best actress at the 2006 Oscars for her role playing a transgender woman in Transamerica, has appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit fraud.

Her lawyer argued she should be released on her own recognisance, rather than paying bail, saying: "She's simply not the kind of person who is going to become an international fugitive."

However, the judge refused this and bail was set at $250,000. She is next scheduled to appear in court in Boston on 29 March.

The FBI says Huffman was one of 13 defendants taken into custody in LA on Tuesday.

Court documents say the star paid $15,000 disguised as a charitable donation so that her daughter could take part in an entrance-exam cheating scam.

According to the AP news agency, the documents say a co-operating witness met with Huffman and husband Macy at their home in LA.

He explained to them that he "controlled" a testing centre and could arrange for her daughter's answers to be changed. It is alleged the couple agreed to the plan.

Macy has not been charged, but authorities have not said why.

The couple's daughter, Sofia, is an aspiring actress who attends Los Angeles High School of the Arts.

Earlier this year Macy said in an interview with Parade magazine that his family was "in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful".

The actress, who starred in sitcom Full House in the 1980s and '90s, has been charged along with her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.

Prosecutors in the case say they have agreed to let Loughlin travel to Vancouver for work, but her whereabouts are currently unknown.

Loughlin and her husband allegedly paid $500,000 to have their two daughters labelled as recruits to the USC crew rowing team, even though neither participated in the sport.

Their 19-year-old daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, a social media star with almost 2 million subscribers on YouTube, is now at USC.

What is the reaction?

The University of Southern California says it has fired two employees who were indicted over the alleged scam, and is also reviewing its admissions procedures.

Stanford University says it has fired sailing coach John Vandemoer, who was charged with accepting a total of $270,000 in contributions to the school's program for agreeing to recommend two prospective students for admission. He has pleaded guilty.

The school said that neither student went to Stanford but that "the alleged behaviour runs completely counter to Stanford's values".

Stanford said it has no evidence that anyone else at the school is involved but will conduct an internal review.



Wake Forest University says it has suspended its head volleyball coach in the wake of the charges, while The University of California, Los Angeles says its soccer coach has been placed on leave pending a review.

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has said it will look into the allegations against coaches.</s>Alia Wong, staff writer at The Atlantic, talks to NPR's David Greene about the legal ways that wealthy parents have essentially tried to buy their kids' way into selective schools.

Paying for college has taken on an entirely different meaning. We've always known that wealthy parents can leverage their influence and money to get their kids into better schools, but what we learned about yesterday, if true, is egregious and illegal. Federal prosecutors say they've uncovered a scheme in which rich parents bought their kids admission to elite schools like Yale, Stanford and the University of Southern California. We are told they bought falsified exam scores. They bought fake photos making it look like their kids starred in sports they didn't even know how to play. Some 50 people have been charged. More than half of them are parents, and they include Hollywood stars and some big-name business leaders.

JOSEPH BONAVOLONTA: This is not a case where parents were acting in the best interests of their children. This is a case where they flaunted their wealth, sparing no expense, to cheat the system so they could set their children up for success with the best education money could buy, literally.

GREENE: This story has, of course, renewed broader questions about fairness in American higher education, and joining us to talk about it is Alia Wong. She has written about this case and these questions for The Atlantic. Thanks for being here.

GREENE: So what the parents allegedly did in this case was illegal, but, I mean, you've written that there are a lot of legal ways that wealthy parents have really tried to essentially buy their kids' way into selective schools. I mean, how common is this in general?

WONG: It's pretty common. It's widespread especially with private colleges, especially the elite colleges. It's kind of just a fact of life that people have accepted. The universities say that giving these preferences helps maintain their economic advantage, their competitive edge in the higher education ecosystem. They say it creates a sense of community. So there have been legal means of basically giving preference to wealthy kids for forever.

GREENE: Universities, you're saying, have essentially said, this might not seem great, but we have to allow, you know, families to put their names on buildings. We have to allow there to be legacy acceptance. Those are things the universities say actually help them in the long run?

WONG: That's what they say, yes.

GREENE: So if that kind of stuff has been going on, besides the FBI getting involved here and calling out some of these activities as illegal, like, why the outrage? Why is this the moment that is causing people to seem so angry?

WONG: Well, I think, for one, you know, it's a bunch of public figures. It's kind of the most egregious example of the haves and have-nots and how that dynamic really drives higher education. I think also it's just such a theatrical scheme, allegedly. You know, it has all the components that you might even see in a TV show, so I think that adds a sensational element to it. What's honestly most shocking about this is that they don't just resort to those conventional means of gaining an advantage. They had to go through this illegal, convoluted, satirically evil mechanism.

GREENE: So if this is as systemic as you say - I mean, the universities have not been charged here. But is this, do you think, going to expose enough that universities have to, in some way, be held accountable for both allowing some of these students in and for allowing this kind of system to fester for so long?

WONG: They definitely need to be accountable. I think one of the most obvious ways that they could at least attempt to solve some of these inequities is by growing the size of their classes. The Ivy Leagues, by and large, haven't enrolled more students over the years, despite the skyrocketing numbers of applications, and that is arguably because selectivity itself - the lower the acceptance rate, the more prestigious the institution. And that, of course, is perpetuated by the rankings which do place emphasis on selectivity, so it's kind of this vicious cycle.

GREENE: What should we take from this case and this moment? I mean, is this a big moment, or is this just exposing something that sort of exists and is going to go on?

WONG: Well, I think actually - I think it's both of those things. I think what is big about this is, obviously, it's a sensational story. There's a lot of drama. There are famous people. It's almost like Fyre Fest in that you just kind of look at all these wealthy people and realize that they're not as perfect as they like to say they are. I think that the fact that this is such a prominent news story will draw attention to what's really been an entrenched and worsening issue.

GREENE: What would you say to a student in a family that is not so wealthy that sees this story and is sort of thinking, like, is it even worth it, if this is the system that's sort of stacked against me?

WONG: Well, I think now - in retrospect, now that we are reading about these revelations or alleged revelations, I think, for one, it puts the universities' feet to the fire and saying, you know, now that the mainstream public has its eyes on you, you can't get away with some of these practices or some of these omissions anymore. I think moving forward, to a kid who is maybe feeling a little deflated by it all, that I would say, use the fact that you are in many ways a victim or someone who is getting the short end of the stick here, use that to your advantage. I think that's something that can really be a compelling story for universities.

GREENE: Alia Wong writes for The Atlantic. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.</s>SAN FRANCISCO — Two college students have filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California, Yale University and other colleges where prosecutors have accused rich and famous parents paying bribes to ensure their children’s admission.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco and alleges the students were denied a fair opportunity for admission.

Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods claimed they were denied a fair opportunity to apply to Yale and USC. The lawsuit also named the University of California, Los Angeles, Wake Forest University, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown University and Stanford University.

The alleged scheme gave unqualified students admission to highly selective universities, said the plaintiffs, who are both currently students at Stanford.
• Two Sage Hill School board of trustees members among those indicted for bribery in college admissions scandal
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• Southern California is at the center of nationwide bribery for college admissions scandal “Each of the universities took the students’ admission application fees while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that their admissions process was fair and free of fraud, bribery, cheating and dishonesty,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.

Charges were announced earlier this week against 50 people, including coaches and dozens of parents, in a scheme where prosecutors have said wealthy parents paid to rig standardized scores and bribed sports coaches to get their children into elite universities.

The colleges named have cast themselves as victims of the scheme, and have moved to distance themselves from the coaches accused of involvement.

“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,” USC officials said in a statement earlier this week.

Yale officials said earlier this week they were cooperating with the investigation.

“As the indictment makes clear, the Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its former women’s soccer coach,” Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said.</s>Two women are suing eight elite universities claiming that the schools have a “rigged” admissions process that allowed unqualified students to be accepted ahead of worthy candidates who paid admissions fees thinking they had a fair chance to be accepted.

The class-action lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in federal court in California is the latest in a scandal involving celebrities and other wealthy parents who federal authorities say sought to have their children admitted into universities by bribing athletic coaches and having other people take tests for their children.

The eight schools are Georgetown; Stanford; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of San Diego; the University of Southern California; the University of Texas at Austin; Wake Forest; and Yale.

University of Texas tennis coach Michael Center was one of the coaches charged with fraud as part of the scheme, after authorities say he accepted a $100,000 bribe to get a student into the university as a tennis recruit when the student did not play competitive tennis.

The university announced Wednesday it had fired Center, and officials have said the bribery scheme was an isolated incident that involved a single coach and no other university employee or officer.

However, Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, both students at Stanford University, are now suing UT and others, saying they applied to some of the named schools and paid admissions fees, thinking they were getting a “fair admissions consideration process,” according to the suit. Instead, the process was “rigged by fraud” and schools allowed unqualified students to take slots that could have gone to others, the suit says.

“Each of the universities were negligent in failing to maintain adequate protocols and security measures in place to guarantee the sanctity of the college admissions process, and to ensure that their own employees were not engaged in these type of bribery schemes,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also names The Edge College & Career Network and The Key Worldwide Foundation, the for-profit college counseling company and the non-profit charity owned by William “Rick” Singer, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering, racketeering and other charges in connection with the scheme alleged by authorities.

Investigators’ charging documents allege that Singer made about $25 million from 2011 to 2018 to bribe college coaches and create fake athletic profiles, some with staged photographs. In exchange, coaches would designate the clients’ children as recruited athletes, thereby helping them gain easier admission. College athletic entrance requirements are typically lower than those for regular students.

The lawsuit says that the UT System has specifically denounced the influence of money in its admissions process, saying that it has faced suspicion in the past of “a double standard that favors well-connected students.”

“Ensuring that fair and transparent admissions processes exist across the UT System is necessary to maintain public trust,” the university has stated. “Recruitment and admissions policies that are disclosed to the public and are consistent with stated university goals garners public trust that student admissions are centered on merit.”

The women also say in the lawsuit that their degrees from Stanford University are not worth as much now, because they come from a school involved in the scandal and that employers may now question whether they were admitted on their own merits. They are asking to be reimbursed for admissions fees and other damages.

The suit was filed in California, where many of the named universities are located. It also claims that California is the proper jurisdiction for a claim against UT because the university has solicited students residing in California, accepted money, including application fees, from California residents and has recruited athletes residing in California.</s>Legal experts say the students could have difficulty holding the colleges responsible

In the first lawsuit to come out of the college bribery scandal, several students are suing Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and other schools involved in the case, saying they and others were denied a fair shot at admission.

The plaintiffs brought the class-action complaint Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of themselves and other applicants and asked for unspecified damages.

They argued that applicants who played by the rules were victimized when rich and famous parents paid bribes that enabled unqualified students to get into highly selective universities.

“Each of the universities took the students’ admission application fees while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that their admissions process was fair and free of fraud, bribery, cheating and dishonesty,” the lawsuit said.

Legal experts, though, said the students could have difficulty holding the colleges responsible.

The scandal erupted on Tuesday when federal prosecutors announced charges against 50 people, including coaches and dozens of parents, among them TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Prosecutors said parents paid to rig standardized exams and bribed coaches to get their children designated as recruited athletes in sports they didn’t even play, thereby boosting their chances of getting in.

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The colleges have cast themselves as victims and have moved to distance themselves from the coaches, firing or suspending them.

The investigation began with a tip from an executive under suspicion in a securities fraud probe, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The executive told Boston authorities that the women’s soccer coach at Yale offered to label the executive’s daughter a recruited athlete in exchange for cash, the official said.

— The Hallmark Channel cut ties with Loughlin, a longtime star of its feel-good movies.

— Golfer Phil Mickelson said he used the college consulting company accused of orchestrating the scheme, but emphasized his family was not involved in any fraud. One of his daughters is a sophomore at Brown University. Brown said it has found no evidence of fraud among its athletes.

The class-action complaint was brought initially by Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, now students at Stanford. It was revised Thursday to remove Olsen and add three new plaintiffs, students at Tulane, Rutgers and an unnamed community college.

One of the institutions being sued, the University of Texas at Austin, issued a statement saying that it is “outraged” over the bribery scheme and that any wrongdoing at the school does not reflect its admissions practices and was carried out by “one UT employee.”

Other schools named in the lawsuit were the University of Southern California, the University of California at Los Angeles, Wake Forest University and the University of San Diego.

The students in the lawsuit could have a difficult time tying the schools to the fraud in the absence of further evidence, said Joy Blanchard, a professor at Louisiana State University who focuses on higher education law.

“They won’t be able to prove that the universities were behind some grand scheme,” she said.

Kyle McEntee, an attorney who has pushed for reforms in law school education, said the lawsuit “reeks of opportunism.”

“It’s tough to see these succeeding,” he said.

Legal experts said the plaintiffs at highly selective Stanford would have had an especially hard time showing they suffered any harm, since they still got into an elite institution. Messages seeking comment from Olsen and Woods were not immediately returned.

Among other claims, the lawsuit said that the universities should have discovered the bribes and that their failure to do so through audits or other practices reflects “an unfair business practice.”

USC officials said earlier this week that prosecutors believe that the perpetrators “went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university.” Yale, likewise, said it was “the victim of a crime.”

Sudhin Thanawala And Michael Melia, The Associated Press

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Eight universities are sued by two Stanford University students in regards to the college admissions bribery scandal.