Singer was scheduled to plead guilty in Boston federal court to charges including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice, according to court papers. He could not be reached for immediate comment.
Some 33 parents were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer’s business. Among them were Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Huffman, best known for her starring role on TV show Desperate Housewives; actress Lori Loughlin, known for her work on the 80s comedy series Full House, and Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.
Others facing charges are the former women’s soccer coach at Yale, the senior associate athletic director at the University of Southern California, the women’s volleyball coach at Wake Forest University, and the sailing coach at Stanford. A college prep school director is charged, as is the director of exam-preparation company.
Authorities said the crimes date back to 2011, and the defendants used “bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission” to numerous college and universities, including Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of California Los Angeles, among others.
Some of the 32 defendants are accused of bribing administrators to facilitate cheating on college-entrance exams – by having a smarter student take the test, 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.
Others allegedly bribed university athletic coaches and administrators to designate applicants as “purported athletic recruits – regardless of their athletic abilities, and in some cases, even though they did not play the sport they were purportedly recruited to play – thereby facilitating their admission to universities in place of more qualified applicants,” the complaint charges.
Huffman is accused of paying $US15,000 ($21,175) – 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 told 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.
Washington Post, Reuters
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