Hollywood actresses and university administrators arrested in connection with the vast scandal of admissions to American universities | English movie

WASHINGTON: Nearly 50 people, including two Hollywood actresses, university administrators and sports coaches, were arrested by the authorities as a result of an incredible swindle on admissions to universities that shook Tuesday the United States.

In what is described as the biggest academic scandal ever pursued by the US Department of Justice, more than 300 FBI and IRS agents participated in an operation called "Varsity Blues" which resulted in arrests for corruption and corruption. intermediaries and parents who have purchased entry fees for their children in elite schools such as Stanford, Yale and Georgetown Universities.

Among the actresses cited in the scandal are actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.

While the rich who buy their children in elite schools are not new to the United States (President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were examined and pilloried during their move to Wharton and Harvard, respectively), which is different in this case, cheating, corruption and falsification are involved.

"We're not talking about giving a building so the school can take your son or daughter, we're talking about deception and fraud," FBI officials told the media in Boston at the time. writing this article. That said, he describes a system in which parents go so far as to pay agents to test for their pupils.

Several university athletic coaches and SAT / ACT administrators have also been accused of having simulated qualifications and grades for children from wealthy families in order to allow them to visit elite schools. In total, the suspects reportedly paid up to $ 25 million in bribes for their children to go to the highest ranked colleges.

According to the authorities, in some cases, parents had paid William Singer, the founder of a college readiness business in California, for someone to take the SAT or the # ACT for their children.

Among the defendants are actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who allegedly paid $ 500,000 to middlemen from the University of Southern California to have their two daughters recruited into the community. 39 college team team, even though they did not participate. crew – thus guaranteeing their admission to the college, according to the documents.

John Vandemoer, Stanford University Chief Sailing Coach, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, Former Head Football Coach at Yale University, and Mark Riddell, Counselor at a Bradenton Private School , Florida, are also subject to prosecution.

According to the Department of Justice, the conspiracy consisted in: 1) bribing the SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a candidate, usually Riddell, to secretly pbad college entrance exams in the place of students or correct student responses after taking the exam; 2) bribe coaches and university athletic administrators, including coaches from Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas, to facilitate the admission of students. students in elite universities under the pretext of being recruited as athletes; and (3) use the facade of the Singer charity to hide the nature and source of the bribes.

According to the prosecution documents, Singer, the founder of the college prep company, facilitated fraud on the SAT and ACT exams for his clients by asking them to ask for more time to their children for college entrance exams, including having learning difficulties to obtain the required medical documentation. Once the extended time allowed, Singer would have asked clients to change the location of the exams and place them in one of the following two examination centers: a public high school in Houston, Texas, or a preparatory school of a private college in West Hollywood (California).

In these test centers, Singer had established relationships with test administrators Niki Williams and Igor Dvorskiy, respectively, who accepted bribes of up to $ 10,000 per test to facilitate the fraud scheme. Specifically, Williams and Dvorskiy allowed a third person, usually Riddell, to take the exams instead of the students, give the students the correct answers during the exams, or correct the students' answers after they have finished. Singer usually paid Ridell $ 10,000 for each student's test.

Singer's clients pay him between $ 15,000 and $ 75,000 per test, with payments being structured as alleged donations to the charity. In many cases, students who attended the exams were unaware that their parents had made arrangements to cheat.