Halle Coleman
Staff Writer
The college admission process has been breached! News broke on March 12 of a massive multi-million dollar college admission scandal.
Thirty wealthy parents have been charged, including university coaches and actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
William “Rick” Singer, the alleged college fixer, is reported to have had more than 700 clients over time. Wealthy parents are accused of paying Singer to assist their children in cheating on college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT.
Singer was paid to gain extra time for his clients through either false claim of a learning disability to gain extra time or by blatantly bribing test officials.
He orchestrated situations in which students would take the test at two specific locations in Houston and West Hollywood. At the said locations, administrators of the test were paid bribes of $10,000 per test.
If all else failed, to ensure a high score, Singer would arrange for a third person to either take the test in place of the prospective student, give the student the correct answers to the test, or change students answers after the test was taken. Altering results for these tests is a federal crime.
According to npr.com, the role of this third person was most often played by 36-year old Palmetto, Fla. Resident, Mark Riddell.
Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, held a press conference addressing the case.
“Singer’s clients paid him between $15 thousand and $75 thousand per test. With the payments structured as purported donations to a perpetrated charity that Singer controlled.”
Lelling also reports that in many of these instances the students did not know that their parents had arranged for the cheating to take place.
Singer’s services additionally included falsifying athletic records to enable students to secure admission into notable schools such as UCLA, USC, Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown.
Court documents reveal that Singer paid numerous coaches, including Yale women’s soccer coach, Rudy Meredith, to designate students as recruits for respective sports teams despite knowledge that the students didn’t play the sport competitively.
“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli were arrested for allegedly paying Singer $500,000 to make it appear that their daughter Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli were coxswain recruits for USC’s rowing team in order to ensure their admission to the university.
Since the scandal has become public, both Olivia Jade and Isabella have been affected by their parent’s actions.
Since school has been back in session, both girls have not returned. Olivia Jade, who is also a popular Youtube beauty vlogger, has lost sponsorship deals with HP, Sephora, TRESemme, and Lulus.
“Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman has been accused of making a $15,000 payment to Singer for a test proctor to alter daughter Sophia’s SAT answers.
Huffman was formally arrested on the charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud.
The criminal complaint for the case presents multiple emails and recorded phone conversations proving Huffman’s involvement in the cheating conspiracy.
These records date from summer of 2017 into February of this year.
Diaisa Dyson, a freshman healthcare administration major from New Orleans, La., has a different perspective of the situation.
“Even though it may not be fair in some eyes, I don’t have anything against it,” she states, “Some people want what’s best for their children and are willing to do so by any means necessary,” said Dyson.
Huffman was released on $250,000 bond and is due in federal court April 3. Her husband William Macy has not yet been charged.
Loughlin has not yet been arrested, but husband Giannulli was released on bond. Both are scheduled to appear in Court April 15. Neither Loughlin or Huffman have publicly spoke on their charges.
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