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Actors Felicity Huffman and William H Macy at the Golden Globe Awards in January
A network of wealthy parents has been charged this week with using daring practices to secure their children's place in American elite universities. What is alleged exactly?
"What we do, is help the richest families in America to educate their children."
This was quite the mission statement.
The words were uttered by the so-called pillar of the biggest scam ever admitted in the United States, William "Rick" Singer, according to prosecutors.
He was giving a speech to a potential client, a rich New York lawyer, explaining to him how to get his child into a prestigious university.
There were normal channels – that the rich did not want to mess with, he said. And then there was the back door and the side door.
The back door required contributing to "institutional progress" – family ties or a multi-million dollar donation, such as the funding of a new building, which is completely legal.
But the side door – the one in which Singer had stuck his foot and drew the attention of the authorities – was more accessible.
He could guarantee success, he said. All you needed to do was take a "financial commitment".
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Police named their investigation after the 1999 Varsity Blues film, starring James Van Der Beek
Revelations
On Tuesday, many FBI documents were unsealed from "Operation Varsity Blues", a survey named after a film of the 1990s on the pressures exerted by sports scholarships.
The case concerned a period from 2011 to 2018, when, according to the authorities, $ 25 million in bribes were paid by people seeking to slip into the usual process of admission to l & # 39; university.
Fifty people – including 33 parents and various sports coaches – were charged.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of Insight Into Diversity magazine, which is dedicated to making higher education and businesses more inclusive in the United States. "The depth, the number of people involved, the sums of money, it's astounding."
It sounds like a "slap" for those who are really trying to change things, she told the BBC.
The alleged participation of Hollywood actresses, Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, is one of the most breathtaking revelations.
- Actresses prosecuted in fraud at a college
- TV network drops Loughlin on "bribes"
"Ruh roh!" as Huffman might say.
The authorities claimed that the star of the television series Desperate Housewives was using this expression of Scooby Do in his emails with Singer.
According to the FBI, in October 2017, she was responding to a news that her daughter's school wanted to use her own exam supervisor, rather than compromising her to be able to improve her scores.
She allegedly sent her concerns by email to Mr. Singer. "We'll talk about it," he said.
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William "Rick" Singer pleaded guilty to charges
L & # 39; architect
Rick Singer, a California life coach in his late fifties, has come forward as an expert in the process of admission to the university.
He has written books on this subject, including the self-published book entitled Getting In: Getting Into Your College of Choice, which began with an inspiring quote from Nelson Mandela.
However, he kept his techniques more illicit in a close circle.
The FBI has traced its scam since 2011. It is unclear whether this has been a turning point in its three decades of career.
In 2014, he founded a non-profit organization called Key Worldwide, which claimed to help "underprivileged students around the world". The website said it would "open the door" to young people fleeing problems such as gang violence.
However, according to the authorities, the organization functioned as a slush fund. It has become a facade through which payments could be channeled into "charitable donations". Singer pocketed some of the money and paid the rest in bribes to those who could help him get the results that he had guaranteed.
Over time, he had developed two possible paths to success. One would involve manipulating the results of the examination. The other solution would be to get special treatment, most often through simulated sports prowess.
According to the FBI, the two Hollywood actresses have taken separate routes.
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Felicity Huffman (left) photographed alongside her co-stars Desperate Housewives in 2006
Huffman, Macy's and the "Exam Plot"
Authorities say that Felicity Huffman knew that she had to send her eldest daughter to a specific test center in West Hollywood to follow the plan. From where the "ruh-roh" when he almost got it wrong.
The singer had links there.
He would generally be accused of suggesting to his clients false learning difficulties for their children, and then, once they have obtained a medical certificate, additional time would be given to them and could constitute a motive. more plausible to move to an external examination center.
Huffman would have already gotten 100% extra time for the SAT (college entrance) exam from his daughter. We do not know how.
Apparently, that was not enough.
The next step was to bring in another person for the test.
Singer has often used the services of a man named Mark Riddell. He was in his mid-thirties, a former tennis professional and director of exam preparation for college entrance exams in a Florida boarding school.
According to the FBI, he would fly, pbad the test for students in a hotel room, give them the correct answers in the exam room or increase their score at the end. Sometimes he would receive a sample of the teenager's writing so he could copy it.
Riddell did not know the issues in advance, according to Mbadachusetts Attorney General Andrew Lelling. He was "just a really smart guy".
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Mark Riddell pleaded guilty and apologized
It is still unclear how Huffman came into contact with Singer.
In 2017, he visited the Los Angeles home that she shares with her longtime partner, William H Macy, the star of Shameless and Fargo, according to court documents.
The couple – who met in the early 80's and got married in 1997 – usually did not make headlines. Macy's hobbies are apparently playing wood and playing ukulele, while Huffman runs a healthy parenting website, What The Flicka, based on his childhood nickname.
They are known to post love messages on each other on social media.
Early Tuesday morning, FBI agents showed up at their door.
Only Huffman has been charged. The crime of which she is accused is linked to a postal fraud, which consists of using communication methods to set up a scheme that deliberately deprives a third party of honest goods or services. Macy was not charged.
Neither commented publicly.
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The couple paid a $ 15,000 payment to the Key Worldwide Foundation for their eldest daughter's examination program, according to court documents.
In an art-mirrors-life twist, it was exactly the same amount as the Huffman character in Desperate Housewives had poured to a school principal in an episode about admissions to corrupt schools.
In real life, his eldest daughter's exam score jumped 400 points – a huge leap – after Singer's involvement, he says.
If these claims are proven, Huffman and Macy seem to have made a good deal. Many people have paid hundreds of thousands of people for their help. He usually paid only $ 10,000 to the surrogate mother.
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The sailing coach of Stanford University was fired for alleged involvement
The sports scam
Academic manipulation was only one side of this story, and the alleged sports scam was even more outrageous.
Singer took students without feats and turned them into sports stars on their applications, says one.
In some cases, he arranged for their heads to be photographed on sportier bodies. In others, their basic statistics would be manipulated: a basketball player has seen his size go from 5 feet 5 inches to 6 feet 1 inch, likely betting on a result once you've arrived.
According to the Boston Globe, the police found the first strong evidence of this ploy at a listening meeting in a hotel room in Boston, Mbadachusetts.
The newspaper says investigators were working on a completely different story – an alleged stock market fraud – when they received unexpected information.
A financial officer told them that a Yale University sports coach, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, had asked for a bribe to help this businessman's daughter get into the business. at the Ivy League.
The executive agreed to wear a recording device and meet Meredith, who then proposed to nominate the young woman as a member of his football team.
Meredith – along with Singer and Riddell – worked with the police in hopes of reducing their sentences.
Sports bring so much money and prestige to American universities that they often reduce the academic requirements to attract new talent.
"Student-athletes often have excellent leadership qualities and excel in the clbadroom and in the field, recognizing that it makes sense for colleges to search for the best students," said Eric Yaverbaum, author of Life's Little College Insmissions Insights.
"The hard work that a student athlete requires is what makes some of these parents take advantage of this troubling journey, and it is appalling that some parents and coaches betrayed these students by buying and selling these coveted positions."
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Lori Loughlin with her daughters in West Hollywood last year
The girls of the Full House actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli were not exceptional sportswomen.
However, the couple would have spent $ 500,000 to bring them to the University of Southern California by presenting them as accomplished rowers. They have not commented since the charge was filed.
- LLori Loughlin's daughters in the honor
- Free actress on bail for university swindle
After getting her place, their youngest daughter, Olivia Jade, aggravated the situation by boasting online, claiming that she would prefer to focus on her career on Instagram. She is influential and has 1.3 million followers.
"I do not know how many schools I will go to, but I will talk to my deans and everyone, and I hope I can try to balance everything," she said on her channel. Youtube. "But I really want the experience of match days, parties … I do not really care about school, as you all know."
Since then, she has apologized for her comments, but the response has been enormous.
It is difficult to know how much children are aware of the so-called plots. According to the court documents, some were involved, at least to some extent, while others were in the dark.
"[The entire scandal] is a perfect example of the law badociated with wealth and privilege, "adds author Eric Yaverbaum.
"We knew the system was unfair (after all, wealthy parents can pay for multiple rehearsals and expensive tutoring, and the rich can promise large donations to a school when their kids apply), but we did not know that in both cases, it only reiterates the need to reevaluate the admission process. "
In recent days, the American media has discovered that Loughlin's Full House character, Aunt Becky, was also involved in a history of academic cheating – perhaps indicating how widespread this idea is, at least in theory.
In real life, however, the story unfolding in the news has surpbaded the writers.
Although the focus has so far been on the two actresses, the rest of the cast of real-life characters is almost as intriguing.
Other accused parents include a caring author, a casino operator, and a Napa Valley winery owner.
One of the many unanswered questions is: Who will play who in the inevitable television adaptation?
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