A Cornell University alumnus is among 50 people indicted in a college admissions bribery scandal that included sports coaches, CEOs and two Hollywood actresses. The Daily Beast reports Gordon Caplan, a top lawyer and co-chairman at New York-based international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, allegedly paid $75,000 to fix his daughter’s college entrance exam scores. Caplan is accused of paying William “Rick” Singer to fix guarantee an ACT score of 32 with doctored answers after Caplan’s child scored in the low 20s on her practice test. According to the Associated Press, Singer was the middleman for the wide-reaching scam that included college coaches allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for admitting students as athletes, regardless of their ability. 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. In some cases, administrators were bribed to allow a Florida man to take admissions tests on behalf of students. “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman and “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin were among the 32 parents indicted at the conclusion of the FBI investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues." Huffman was arrested and released Tuesday after paying a $250,000 bond; her husband, actor William H. Macy, has not been charged. Loughlin has not yet been arrested, but her husband and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli was released after posting a $1 million bond. Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network of Newport Beach, California, has already pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, money laundering and more. His lawyer, Donald Heller, said his client intends to cooperate fully with prosecutors; Singer admitted he took more than $25 million in bribes over the past eight years to ensure wealthy parents’ kids could get into the colleges of their choice. Caplan has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. The private equity attorney, named “Dealmaker of the Year” by American Lawyer magazine last year, graduated from Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1988. According to the Cornell Daily Sun, FBI documents show Singer used his college counseling service to encourage Caplan to petition for extended test-taking time for his daughter last June. A wiretapped phone call shows Caplan and his wife discussed a total of $75,000 in payments for Singer’s employees to take classes under Caplan’s daughter’s name. The scheme first required Caplan’s daughter “to be stupid” on psychologist evaluation to receive extra test time. She scored a 22 out of a possible 36 on the ACT practice test; Caplan allegedly asked Singer to make sure she scored 32, but no higher. “To be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here,” Caplan told Singer, according to transcripts of the FBI-wiretapped phone calls. Caplan admitted it felt “a little weird" and told Singer he was a lawyer, but agreed when Singer assured Caplan that no one had ever been caught in the years-long scheme. Other parents spent more, as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. In one case, $6.5 million was paid to guarantee a child’s admission to an elite school. “These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” U.S. Attorney Andrew said in filings released Tuesday. The investigation is continuing as authorities believe other parents were involved. According to the AP, the IRS is also investigating as some parents allegedly disguised the bribes as charitable donations. No students have been charged. Authorities said in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on. Lelling added that the colleges involved have not been targeted in the investigation, though some schools have fired or suspended employees allegedly involved. Stanford fired its sailing coach and USC fired a water polo coach and an athletic administrator, while UCLA suspended its soccer coach, and Wake Forest suspended its volleyball coach.<doc-sep>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>A counselor at a sports-oriented prep school in Florida is "really smart guy" who took tests on behalf of students as part of the sweeping college bribery scandal, prosecutors said. Harvard graduate and unsuccessful tennis pro Mark Riddell was listed on the website of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, as the director of college entrance exam preparation, in a page that apparently was taken down on Tuesday when federal prosecutors announced dozens of arrests in Boston. Mark Riddell WTSP-TV Prosecutors say Riddell secretly took college entrance exams in place of students or corrected students' answers after they had taken the exam. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling described Riddell as "just a really smart guy." "He didn't have inside information about the answers, he was just smart enough to get a near perfect score on demand or to calibrate the score," Lelling said of Riddell. Court documents accuse Riddell of getting paid by admissions consultant Rick Singer who was collecting money from the wealthy parents, including Hollywood actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. Singer typically paid Riddell $10,000 for each student's test, prosecutors said. In a statement released by his attorney Wednesday, Riddell said: 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. I understand how my actions contributed to a loss of trust in the college admissions process. I assume full responsibility for what I have done. I do, however, want to clarify an assertion that has arisen in the media coverage. I absolutely, unequivocally never bribed anyone, nor has the Information filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office charged me with any form of bribery. 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. The IMG website had identified Riddell as a "ranked ATP Tour tennis professional." ATP Tour records show he competed in 10 low-level tournaments between 2003 and 2005 — four in singles, six in doubles — and went 0-10 in matches, never winning a single set. His career earnings were $892. According to the ATP, Riddell never had a singles ranking, and his doubles ranking was never higher than 1,601st in the world. Riddell had a 78-43 singles record and 92-46 doubles record while at Harvard, according to College Tennis Online. CBS affiliate WTSP-TV reports that IMG issued the following statement Tuesday night about Riddell's arrest: "Today we were made aware of the charges against Mark Riddell. Riddell has been suspended indefinitely as we investigate this matter. "<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."