[ad_1]
BOSTON / LOS ANGELES: "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin appeared in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday to face charges of involvement in a ploy in which dozens of wealthy parents are accused of stealing money. to have paid their children to go to the United States. universities.
US Magistrate Judge Steve Kim has ordered the release of Loughlin, one of the world's leading entertainment and business figures caught in the scandal, released from the federal custody on bail of a million dollars after a brief hearing.
Douglas Hodge, the former general manager of investment firm Pimco, and another of 33 parents charged with a $ 25 million US scam, appeared earlier in the day in a Boston court. He was released on bail of $ 500,000 from a federal magistrate who rejected a federal prosecutor's objection to Hodge retaining his passport.
The Los Angeles Judge ruled that Loughlin could continue to travel to and from British Columbia for a number of productions on which she works, provided she advised the US authorities in advance of each trip. But the television star was ordered to give up her passport in December.
Loughlin and Hodge are among the 50 people accused of participating in a scam that has led high school graduates to elite universities, including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford, by misleading the process. admission. Prosecutors have described it as the biggest scandal of this kind in the history of the United States.
The acting president of the University of Southern California, Wanda Austin, issued a statement that anyone involved in a candidacy for the upcoming academic year would be denied admission, while the students currently involved in this project would be examined on a case by case basis. USC announced on Tuesday that two employees – a deputy sports director and women's water polo coach – had been fired in connection with the scandal.
Manuel Henriquez, another company involved in the case, resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Hercules Capital Inc., the company said Wednesday.
Gordon Caplan, who, according to prosecutors, would have paid $ 75,000 last year to correct some of his daughter's bad responses during a college admission exam, was put on leave from his position as co-chair of the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, announced the company Wednesday.
MONTH OF SON
The brain of the ploy, William "Rick" Singer, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of racketeering. Attorneys at the US Attorney's Office in Boston have said his company, Edge College & Career Network, has earned $ 25 million since it embarked on fraud in 2011, offering what he promised was a "guarantee" of admission.
After months of listening, Singer finally cooperated with the investigators last September, helping them to secretly record incriminating conversations with their parents.
The trick was to bribe administrators of college entrance tests to allow a child to correct the wrong answers or to allow another person to take the test for them. Singer has also arranged for parents to bribe college coaches to certify that a child is good at sports.
In some cases, but not all, Singer ensured that the child was unaware of cheating.
"They feel good about themselves," he said during a phone call to Caplan, according to the criminal complaint. "And they simply have no idea that they did not even get the score they thought they had."
In some cases, Singer even helped a doctor take pictures to make an athletic child appear.
According to the prosecutors, the parents paid their payments to a fake charity, Singer, which also allowed them to accept a fraudulent tax deduction. The fake charity organization, Key Worldwide Foundation, was supposed to help provide education for "disadvantaged students".
The number of children benefitting was not clearly defined and investigators said more parents and coaches could still be charged. In telephone conversations intercepted by investigators, Singer boasts of having helped hundreds of students, while in others, he reassures parents, he has helped more than 20 or 30 other students to cheat in recent years.
DATA ROWERS
Loughlin is accused of paying $ 500,000 to Singer to help his two daughters fight their way to USC by bribing a sports official at school to claim that the girls were talented rowers. Her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, is also charged with fraud and appeared in court in Los Angeles on Tuesday before being released on bail of $ 1 million.
One of the girls, Olivia Giannulli, has become a leading "influencer" on social networks under the name "Olivia Jade".
"Officially a student!" she subtitled a photo that she had posted in September on Instagram and which showed her in her dorm USC, decorated with items that she had ordered at online retailer Amazon.com Inc., which l & # 39; He had paid for the job.
Other notable relatives indicted by the US Attorney's Office in Boston include actress Felicity Huffman, who starred in "Desperate Housewives"; and Bill McGlashan Jr., who ran the private equity arm of private equity firm TPG Capital, which put him on indefinite leave after being indicted.
Huffman is one of the defendants who appeared in court on Tuesday before being released on bail.
Representatives of the accused parents declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries. Many of the coaches accused of accepting bribes were fired, put on leave or resigned.
(Report by Nate Raymond in Boston and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, additional report by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, written by Jonathan Allen, edited by Bill Tarrant and Lisa Shumaker)
[ad_2]
Source link