Actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman among those busted. Unlike the normal rich folks alumni bribing, these people bribed test coaches and staff directly instead of the institution itself.
The FBI recorded phone calls involving the celebrities and a cooperating witness, according to the criminal complaint. Representatives for Loughlin and Huffman did not immediately return requests for comment.
The plot involved students who attended or were seeking to attend Georgetown University, Stanford University, UCLA, the University of San Diego, USC, University of Texas, Wake Forest, and Yale, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the scheme was masterminded by William Rick Singer, the founder of a for-profit college preparation business based in Newport Beach, California.
Parents paid Singer between $15,000 and $75,000 per test for someone else to take the SAT or ACT exams in place of their college-aged sons or daughters, according to the court papers.
Many of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. They took fake tests while the conspirators submitted the real tests taken by the paid coaches.
Yeah, beyond the easy Aunt Becky jokes, there’s some really disturbing shit here. What got me was Macy & Huffman apparently using their money and influence to get their fully-abled child SAT treatment with their own proctor based on using a loophole provided to disabled students.
I would wager that none of these rich people get any significant form of sentencing for this, and that instead, the non-rich participants in the scheme get thrown under the bus in a huge way. Because that’s the true American way.
I forget which article I read it in, but I am under the impression these students don’t know they cheated, that they actually took a fake test while the impostor took the real one. It doesn’t seem to shame them for life for something like that. SAT
The athlete thing, well I don’t see how you can not know you’re not an athlete.
