Rand Paul says he doesn't need to be vaccinated. Doctor says he's wrong A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community members continue preparations during the third day in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the death of George Floyd. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 01: President Donald Trump's lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talks to journalists outside the White House West Wing July 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. Giuliani did an on-camera interview with One America News Network's Chanel Rion before talking to other journalists about Vice President Joe Biden and the news that Russian intelligence may have paid Taliban operatives to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Vigils & tributes to George Floyd one year since his murder ORLANDO, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 28: Former President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency on February 28, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. Begun in 1974, CPAC brings together conservative organizations, activists, and world leaders to discuss issues important to them. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Here's what reported grand jury in Trump case may look like NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 09: People walk past the Trump Tower as the impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins in Washington on February 09, 2021 in New York City. After listening to nearly four hours of legal arguments, the Senate has voted on Tuesday to move ahead with the impeachment trial of former President Trump. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from Cross- Hall of the White House on May 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Israel and Hamas announced that they would agree to a cease-fire, which will take into effect on Friday, following days of fighting that claimed more than 200 lives. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) SAN JOSE, CA - MAY 26: A view of the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light-rail yard where a mass shooting occurred on May 26, 2021 in San Jose, California. A VTA employee opened fire at the yard, with preliminary reports indicating nine people dead including the gunman. (Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images) A healthcare worker prepares to administer a Pfizer/BioNTEch coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine at The Michener Institute, in Toronto, Ontario on December 14, 2020. - Ontario, Canada's most populous province and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, had 1,940 new cases and 23 deaths on Monday. The province is expected to give its next doses to nursing home workers as a priority, according to media reports. (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct (CNN) — In what is being called the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted, wealthy parents, Hollywood actresses, coaches and college prep executives have been accused of carrying out a nationwide fraud to get students into prestigious universities, according to a federal indictment. The scheme had two major pieces. In the first part, parents allegedly paid a college prep organization to take the test on behalf of students or to correct their answers. Second, the organization allegedly bribed college coaches to help admit the students into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their abilities, prosecutors said. Federal court documents also allege that some defendants created fake athletic profiles for students to make them appear to be successful athletes. In all, 50 people were charged in the criminal investigation that went by the name “Operation Varsity Blues.” Those arrested include two SAT/ACT administrators, one exam proctor, nine coaches at elite schools, one college administrator and 33 parents, according to Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts. The parents, Lelling said, were a “catalog of wealth and privilege,” including actors, CEOs, a fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm. “This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud,” Lelling said. “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.” He added, “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected.” The fallout was swift Tuesday as several college coaches and one administrator were either fired or placed on administrative leave. At least one school launched an internal investigation. Parents paid up to $6.5 million to get their kids into college FBI Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta said the parents spent anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to guarantee admissions for their children. Coaches from Yale, Stanford, the University of Southern California, Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others, are implicated in the case. The extensive case involved arrests in six states across the country. The criminal accusations stretch from 2011 to 2019. Actresses are allegedly on tape discussing scheme CNN US Attorney Andrew Lelling says the 30-plus parents arrested were a "catalog of wealth and privilege." Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are not just the most famous names in the case; their cases represent the two major aspects of the alleged scheme. Huffman, an Academy Award nominee, has been charged with felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, according to court paperwork filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts. She was arrested without incident at her home, the FBI said. She appeared Tuesday in a federal court in Los Angeles and a judge set bond for her at $250,000. Under the terms of her bond, Huffman also surrendered her passport. Her next court date has been set for March 29 in Boston.<doc-sep>michael barbaro From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today: When a federal prosecutor revealed a $25 million scheme to purchase college admissions for the children of celebrities and executives, he declared, “There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy.” But there is. It’s Thursday, March 14. archived recording We’re here today to announce charges in the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. We’ve charged 50 people nationwide with participating in a conspiracy that involved — michael barbaro Jenny and Katie, where does this story begin? katie benner So according to prosecutors, the first lead in this case came about a year ago. michael barbaro Katie Benner covers the Department of Justice. Jennifer Medina is a national correspondent for The Times. jennifer medina So this story begins with a totally different investigation. katie benner Federal prosecutors are investigating an entirely separate case when one of the targets in that investigation gave them a huge tip. There could be a bribery and cheating scandal occurring in the college admissions process. jennifer medina The feds think that this is pretty interesting, and it turns out — katie benner They discovered a man named Rudolph Meredith, a soccer coach at Yale. And they thought that he might be taking money in order to falsely recruit students to the team so they could get into the university. Once the F.B.I. understands how big a deal this is going to be, and as they investigate and more and more schools become involved — jennifer medina They bring in more and more investigators. They give this a name: Operation Varsity Blues. michael barbaro As in the James Van Der Beek movie? jennifer medina As in the James Van Der Beek movie. michael barbaro Which we all saw. jennifer medina I didn’t see. archived recording 1 Dozens of actors, coaches and C.E.O.s are among those charged. ARCHIVED RECORDING 2: The former C.E.O. of Pimco, the investment firm. ARCHIVED RECORDING 3: Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. archived recording 4 You also have William McGlashan. He’s a senior exec at TPG. archived recording 5 Huffman starred on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” and Loughlin is best known for her role on “Full House.” jennifer medina And it all leads back to this guy in Newport Beach, California, who charges somewhere in the ballpark of $15,000 to more than a $1 million to guarantee your kid a spot in a school. michael barbaro And who is this guy in Newport Beach, California? katie benner So this guy is Rick Singer. archived recording (rick singer) Hi, my name is Rick Singer, and I’m the founder of The Key. katie benner Singer is a guy in his 50s who lives in Newport Beach, California. archived recording (rick singer) As a father myself, I understand the stress the college admissions process can put on your family. katie benner He is sort of a player in this world of academic coaches who help students, oftentimes who can pay a lot of money, get into colleges, including some of the nation’s top schools — Yale, Stanford, Harvard. archived recording (rick singer) For the past 25 years, our coaches have been helping students discover their life passion and guiding them and their families through the complex college admissions maze. jennifer medina He was doing legitimate college counseling work, catering to the wealthy, trying to get their kids to school, but legitimate stuff. archived recording (rick singer) My Key method unlocks the full potential of your son or daughter and sets them on a course to excel in life. jennifer medina So he does that for several years, then seems to somehow take a break and works in a call center, but then somehow gets back into this and starts making connections for people to get their kids into schools that they want to get to. archived recording (rick singer) Getting into the right college will set the trajectory for the rest of your son or daughter’s life. Don’t leave it to chance. Let a Key coach come alongside you and your family to truly unlock your student’s potential. katie benner Eventually, the F.B.I. lands on Singer’s door. jennifer medina He looks in all this huge amount of evidence that they’ve got against him. He thinks about what he’s going to do, and he agrees to flip. katie benner And Singer begins to help the F.B.I. jennifer medina He agrees to wear a wire. He agrees to go back to the clients that he’s worked with for years and tape, in excruciating detail, what he’s done. He agrees to call all these people he’s worked with — people he’s accepted bribes from and people he’s given bribes to. Some of these are parents. Some of these are coaches. Some of these are associates — people he’s paying off in one way or another. katie benner They’re discussing extremely strange, bizarre, extraordinary measures that very, very few people could imagine ever taking in order to get their kid into school. jennifer medina There’s sort of two different ways that he operates. The first is this athletic scheme where he amasses a number of coaches at a number of different schools — more than a dozen schools — who agree to accept his bribes and say, I want this person on my team. All these coaches get special slots for athletes. They get admitted to universities on a totally different track than anybody who’s not an athlete. michael barbaro So these coaches are communicating with the admissions departments at these colleges. They’re almost getting, like, their own personal bucket of student athletes. jennifer medina Absolutely, that’s exactly the way it works. You get to say, this is who I want on my team, and the admissions office essentially agrees to go along with what you say. So he’s paying off these coaches in all these different colleges. michael barbaro And how do the coaches pretend that someone is a legitimate athlete when they’re not? And how do the parents play along with that as well? jennifer medina<doc-sep>The 36-year-old Harvard alum, paid to secretly take college board tests for children of hard-driving parents, apologized Wednesday for his role in the burgeoning scandal. "I want to communicate to everyone that I am profoundly sorry for the damage I have done and grief I have caused those as a result of my needless actions," Mark Riddell, a resident of Palmetto, Florida, said in a statement released by his attorney. He is facing two criminal counts for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors in Boston said. Riddell, a 2004 Harvard graduate and a four-year tennis letter winner, is a key figure in the massive college-admissions probe dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. The federal probe announced Tuesday ensnared dozens of parents who allegedly paid millions of dollars to falsify college applications and get their children into elite universities. "I understand how my actions contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process," he said. "I assume full responsibility for what I have done." Riddell took SAT and ACT exams for students between 2012 and this past February, according to a criminal complaint. He was paid $10,000 per test, prosecutors said. It wasn't immediately clear, in charging documents, exactly how many tests Riddell took, but prosecutors are seeking to recover almost $450,000 forfeiture from the former college tennis player. It didn't appear that Riddell actually sat among high school students on Saturday mornings when he allegedly took the tests. Ringleader William Rick Singer bribed test administrators in Houston and Los Angeles and "allowed Riddell to secretly take the ACT and SAT tests in place of the children of Singer's clients," according to charging documents. Federal prosecutors have so far detailed just one example of Riddell's paid test taking, when he allegedly flew to Houston and took a teenager's ACT in his hotel room July 14, 2018. Riddell boasted to Singer that he probably got a 35 for their client — and that's exactly what he scored, prosecutors said. The maximum score is 36 and a 35 would be in about the 99th percentile of ACT takers. Since 2006, Riddell had been director of college exam preparation at IMG Academy, a prep school in Bradenton, Florida, known for producing elite athletes. Riddell said he legitimately helped many students through his job at IMG Academy. "I will always regret the choices I made, but I also believe that the more than 1,000 students I legitimately counseled, inspired, and helped reach their goals in my career will paint a more complete picture of the person I truly am," according to the defendant's statement. Riddell's profile was immediately scrubbed from the school website after his indictment was announced, WFLA-TV reported. "Today, we were made aware of the charges against Mark Riddell," the school said in a statement. "Riddell has been suspended indefinitely as we investigate this matter."<doc-sep>In what the Justice Department called its largest ever college admissions prosecution, federal authorities charged 50 people on Tuesday with taking part in a nationwide scheme to game the admissions process at highly competitive schools like Yale and the University of Southern California. [The college admissions scandal has raised a lot of questions. We’ve answered them here.] Those charged include wealthy and powerful parents accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes, exam administrators and athletic coaches accused of manufacturing students’ achievements, and private admissions counselors accused of coordinating it all. The Enterprise<doc-sep>
To pull off the largest college admissions bribery scheme in U.S history, prosecutors say a middleman working for rich and powerful parents funneled money to a private school counselor in Florida to secretly take their children's ACT and SAT exams. Mark Riddell of Palmetto, Florida, is accused of being the test-taker in the explosive cheating scandal. Riddell, 36, is a 2004 graduate of Harvard University where he starred in tennis. He also briefly played pro tennis. And since 2006, he's worked as director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, a prestigious private boarding school for high school student-athletes that has produced elite college players and professional athletes. IMG Academy suspended Riddell following his indictment Tuesday. Start the day smarter:Get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox Prosecutors say that sometimes Riddell himself took the tests for the students and in other instances he corrected their answers after their test was turned in. They say it went on from 2011 to February. "He was just a really smart guy," said Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, which is leading the prosecution in the sweeping case. "He did not have inside information about the correct answers. He was just smart enough to get a near-perfect score on demand or to calibrate the score." Riddell apologizes for 'needless actions' Riddell has been charged with two counts of conspiracy involving both mail fraud and money laundering for his critical role in the cheating portion of the elaborate conspiracy that has led to criminal charges against 50 people including 33 affluent parents. The scheme also involved bribes to college coaches, prosecutors say. He is set to appear in federal court in Boston on April 12 for a waiver of indictment and plea to Information hearing. In a statement provided by his attorney Wednesday, Riddell apologized for what he called his "needless actions," saying that he understands how they "contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process." He said he accepts "full responsibility for what I have done." More:Felicity Huffman released on bail after allegedly bribing to get kid into college as part of sweeping admissions scandal But he added that he wants to clarify that he "absolutely, unequivocally never bribed anyone," rejecting an assertion that he claims has has risen in media coverage. The Justice Department has not accused him of bribery, but rather accepting the payments. "I will always regret the choices I made, but I also believe that the more than one thousand students I legitimately counseled, inspired, and helped reach their goals in my career will paint a more complete picture of the person I truly am," Riddell said. Prosecutors say Riddell would typically get paid $10,000 per test, paid by William "Rick" Singer of Newport Beach, California, the suspected ringleader of the international scheme. Singer operated a sham counseling nonprofit and received more than $25 million in bribe payments since 2011 from parents looking to get their under-qualified students into elite colleges and universities, according to federal charging documents. More:Everything you need to know about the nation's largest-ever college cheating scandal involving Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin Riddell's cheating was enabled by two test administrators, Niki Williams in Houston, and Igor Dvorskiy in Los Angeles, who received bribe money from Singer as well, according to prosecutors. They would then return the falsified tests to the ACT and SAT. Lelling said that Singer and parents would settle on an appropriate test score before the ACT or SAT was administered so that it would not increase by such a large amount that it would raise suspicion if the student had taken the test before. Riddell would then try to hit that number. "He was just good enough to do it," Lelling said. In one instance described in the charging document, Riddell called Singer after taking an ACT exam from a Houston hotel room on July 14 of last year. He predicted that he would score a 35 out of 36. He ended up scoring just that – a 35. High school sports academy launches own investigation IMG Academy, Riddell's employer for more than a dozen years, has a boarding school for student-athletes as well as training programs in a wide-range of sports. The academy, which is not implicated in the federal case, issued a brief statement Tuesday night on Twitter announcing Riddell's suspension. It came as the academy also appeared to remove a biographical page of Riddell from its web site.