'A Cutting-Edge Issue': Dershowitz
Breaks Down Harvard Discrimination Lawsuit
Alleged College Admissions Scam Is 'One of the Great Scandals of the 21st Century'
Harvard University Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz reacted Tuesday to the college admissions scandal that ensnared "Full House" star Lori Loughlin, "Desperate Housewives" actress Felicity Huffman and more than 50 other individuals.
As Fox News reported:
The alleged scam -- which placed students into top colleges such as Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, University of Southern California, UCLA and the University of Texas -- was run by William Rick Singer, from California, who helped parents get their children admission through bribes, court documents unsealed in Boston showed. Officials have been investigating the case for more than a year.
Singer, who authorities said will plead guilty to racketeering, ran the charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, which received $25 million in total to guarantee the admissions, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said during a Tuesday news conference. The charitable foundation was allegedly used as a front to run the scam.
"This is the worst scandal involving elite universities in the history of the United States," Dershowitz said. "No one can diminish the importance of this."
Dershowitz called the situation one of the "great scandals of the 21st Century" and predicted it is "just the tip of the iceberg."
He said this type of alleged influence has been exercised at universities for years by the "super, super rich" in the form of "buying buildings" which bear their name.
Dershowitz said this case appears to involve the "very rich" attempting to buy admission for their children into some of the country's most prominent institutions.
He said in today's college environment many students "sail through" because so few fail out.
"In many universities, they've abolished grades, so there's no way of testing whether they are qualified or competent," he explained.
Authorities said Huffman made a "purported charitable contribution of $15,000...to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme" in order to facilitate admission for her daughter, while Loughlin and her husband are alleged to have agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 to win admission for their daughters into USC.
Actresses, CEOs among those arrested in college admissions scam
Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin charged in plot
BOSTON - The FBI has uncovered a nationwide college admissions scam with agents arresting nearly 50 people, including famous actresses and CEOs.
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among those facing charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in indictments.
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 purpose of the alleged scam was to help student athletes get into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their athletic ability, according to the indictment.
It alleges that a third party took the ACT and SAT college entrance exams in place of students. The documents also allege that some defendants created fake athletic profiles for students to make them appear to be successful athletes and get them into college.
Agents allege that Huffman and her husband, William Macy, "made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000...to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so."
Court papers say a cooperating witness met with Huffman and her husband at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them. The cooperator told investigators that Huffman and her spouse "agreed to the plan."
Macy talked about his daughter's "stressful" college application process earlier this year.
The actor's comments came two months before his wife, Felicity Huffman, was among more than 30 parents charged in a sweeping college admissions bribery scam.
Macy said in the January interview with Parade magazine that his family was "in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful."
Prosecutors say parents paid an admissions consultant $25 million from 2011 through Feb. 2019 to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes to boost their chances of getting into schools.
Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to pay $500,000 to get their daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team to ease their admissions into the school. The two girls were not recruits and did not participate in crew.
The complaint includes emails between a cooperating witness and Giannulli in which the two discussed a "game plan" for his older daughter whose academic qualifications were at or below the "low-end of USC's admission standards."
Loughlin also wrote at least one email discussing their younger daughter and her admission, according to the complaint.
Giannulli and Loughlin were recorded on calls with a cooperating witness discussing an Internal Revenue Service audit being done on the business involved in the scam and that if ever asked, Loughlin would say they made a donation to the foundation, "end of story," the complaint said.
Much of the indictment revolves around William Rick Singer, the founder of a for-profit college counseling and preparation business known as "The Key."
As laid out in the indictment, Singer allegedly paid college coaches to claim that a prospective student should be accepted to college because the student was a recruit for their sports team. However, Singer and the coaches knew that the student was not a competitive player and that his or her athletic profile was fake, the indictment said.
The University of California, Los Angeles says its soccer coach Jorge Salcedo has been placed on leave pending a review and will have no involvement with the team.
UCLA says in a statement Tuesday it's a "potential victim of a fraudulent scheme" but that it's not aware of any student-athletes who are under suspicion.
Court documents say Salcedo, who was the head coach for the men's team, helped get two applicants who did not play competitive soccer into UCLA in exchange for $100,000 in 2016 and 2018.
Wake Forest University says it has suspended its head volleyball coach amid a sweeping federal investigation into admissions bribes.
The North Carolina school says it placed Bill Ferguson on administrative leave but declined further comment.
Ferguson is accused of accepting $100,000 to recruit a student who had been on Wake Forest's wait list.
The NCAA says it will look into claims made against college coaches and administrators in the admissions bribery scandal.
In a statement, the NCAA says the "charges brought forth today are troubling and should be a concern for all of higher education."
Most NCAA rules that regulate recruiting are aimed at preventing schools and coaches from giving improper benefits and enticements to athletes.
In this case, parents were paying coaches to help students gain entry to college by falsifying athletic credentials and claiming that the students were being recruited to plays sports.
The NCAA says it is reviewing the allegations "to determine the extent to which NCAA rules maybe have been violated."
Authorities say the consulting company also bribed administrators of college entrance exams to allow a Florida man to take the tests on behalf of students or replace their answers with his.
https://www.local10.com/news/national/actress...sions-scam
Investigations of College Admissions and Testing Bribery Scheme
Here is the list of individuals involved.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigation...ery-scheme
Breaks Down Harvard Discrimination Lawsuit
Alleged College Admissions Scam Is 'One of the Great Scandals of the 21st Century'
Harvard University Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz reacted Tuesday to the college admissions scandal that ensnared "Full House" star Lori Loughlin, "Desperate Housewives" actress Felicity Huffman and more than 50 other individuals.
As Fox News reported:
The alleged scam -- which placed students into top colleges such as Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, University of Southern California, UCLA and the University of Texas -- was run by William Rick Singer, from California, who helped parents get their children admission through bribes, court documents unsealed in Boston showed. Officials have been investigating the case for more than a year.
Singer, who authorities said will plead guilty to racketeering, ran the charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, which received $25 million in total to guarantee the admissions, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said during a Tuesday news conference. The charitable foundation was allegedly used as a front to run the scam.
"This is the worst scandal involving elite universities in the history of the United States," Dershowitz said. "No one can diminish the importance of this."
Dershowitz called the situation one of the "great scandals of the 21st Century" and predicted it is "just the tip of the iceberg."
He said this type of alleged influence has been exercised at universities for years by the "super, super rich" in the form of "buying buildings" which bear their name.
Dershowitz said this case appears to involve the "very rich" attempting to buy admission for their children into some of the country's most prominent institutions.
He said in today's college environment many students "sail through" because so few fail out.
"In many universities, they've abolished grades, so there's no way of testing whether they are qualified or competent," he explained.
Authorities said Huffman made a "purported charitable contribution of $15,000...to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme" in order to facilitate admission for her daughter, while Loughlin and her husband are alleged to have agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 to win admission for their daughters into USC.
Actresses, CEOs among those arrested in college admissions scam
Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin charged in plot
BOSTON - The FBI has uncovered a nationwide college admissions scam with agents arresting nearly 50 people, including famous actresses and CEOs.
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among those facing charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in indictments.
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 purpose of the alleged scam was to help student athletes get into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their athletic ability, according to the indictment.
It alleges that a third party took the ACT and SAT college entrance exams in place of students. The documents also allege that some defendants created fake athletic profiles for students to make them appear to be successful athletes and get them into college.
Agents allege that Huffman and her husband, William Macy, "made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000...to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so."
Court papers say a cooperating witness met with Huffman and her husband at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them. The cooperator told investigators that Huffman and her spouse "agreed to the plan."
Macy talked about his daughter's "stressful" college application process earlier this year.
The actor's comments came two months before his wife, Felicity Huffman, was among more than 30 parents charged in a sweeping college admissions bribery scam.
Macy said in the January interview with Parade magazine that his family was "in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful."
Prosecutors say parents paid an admissions consultant $25 million from 2011 through Feb. 2019 to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes to boost their chances of getting into schools.
Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to pay $500,000 to get their daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team to ease their admissions into the school. The two girls were not recruits and did not participate in crew.
The complaint includes emails between a cooperating witness and Giannulli in which the two discussed a "game plan" for his older daughter whose academic qualifications were at or below the "low-end of USC's admission standards."
Loughlin also wrote at least one email discussing their younger daughter and her admission, according to the complaint.
Giannulli and Loughlin were recorded on calls with a cooperating witness discussing an Internal Revenue Service audit being done on the business involved in the scam and that if ever asked, Loughlin would say they made a donation to the foundation, "end of story," the complaint said.
Much of the indictment revolves around William Rick Singer, the founder of a for-profit college counseling and preparation business known as "The Key."
As laid out in the indictment, Singer allegedly paid college coaches to claim that a prospective student should be accepted to college because the student was a recruit for their sports team. However, Singer and the coaches knew that the student was not a competitive player and that his or her athletic profile was fake, the indictment said.
The University of California, Los Angeles says its soccer coach Jorge Salcedo has been placed on leave pending a review and will have no involvement with the team.
UCLA says in a statement Tuesday it's a "potential victim of a fraudulent scheme" but that it's not aware of any student-athletes who are under suspicion.
Court documents say Salcedo, who was the head coach for the men's team, helped get two applicants who did not play competitive soccer into UCLA in exchange for $100,000 in 2016 and 2018.
Wake Forest University says it has suspended its head volleyball coach amid a sweeping federal investigation into admissions bribes.
The North Carolina school says it placed Bill Ferguson on administrative leave but declined further comment.
Ferguson is accused of accepting $100,000 to recruit a student who had been on Wake Forest's wait list.
The NCAA says it will look into claims made against college coaches and administrators in the admissions bribery scandal.
In a statement, the NCAA says the "charges brought forth today are troubling and should be a concern for all of higher education."
Most NCAA rules that regulate recruiting are aimed at preventing schools and coaches from giving improper benefits and enticements to athletes.
In this case, parents were paying coaches to help students gain entry to college by falsifying athletic credentials and claiming that the students were being recruited to plays sports.
The NCAA says it is reviewing the allegations "to determine the extent to which NCAA rules maybe have been violated."
Authorities say the consulting company also bribed administrators of college entrance exams to allow a Florida man to take the tests on behalf of students or replace their answers with his.
https://www.local10.com/news/national/actress...sions-scam
Investigations of College Admissions and Testing Bribery Scheme
Here is the list of individuals involved.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigation...ery-scheme
