Patterico's Pontifications

3/13/2019

The College Admissions Indictment

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 am



New York Times:

A teenage girl who did not play soccer magically became a star soccer recruit at Yale. Cost to her parents: $1.2 million.

A high school boy eager to enroll at the University of Southern California was falsely deemed to have a learning disability so he could take his standardized test with a complicit proctor who would make sure he got the right score. Cost to his parents: at least $50,000.

A student with no experience rowing won a spot on the U.S.C. crew team after a photograph of another person in a boat was submitted as evidence of her prowess. Her parents wired $200,000 into a special account.

In a major college admissions scandal that laid bare the elaborate lengths some wealthy parents will go to get their children into competitive American universities, federal prosecutors charged 50 people on Tuesday in a brazen scheme to buy spots in the freshman classes at Yale, Stanford and other big-name schools.

Some of these kids were clearly complicit in their parents’ cheating. They should be expelled.

I wonder why the parents didn’t just go the standard route of writing a huge donation check to the school. That’s still legal, right? And it accomplishes the same thing. Maybe it’s harder to do if the parent isn’t an alum, huh?

As a friend emailed (he can identify himself here if he likes):

[W]e’re going to hear a lot in coming days about legacy admissions at … elite schools, and we’ll hear about Jared Kushner at Harvard, Donald Trump and his three children at Penn, and probably various Bush Yalies. What we won’t hear about is whether Malia Obama was really deserving of admittance to Harvard, or whether Chelsea Clinton was truly Stanford Material, or about the Gore and Kennedy families at Harvard.

Sounds about right. And you’ll see the mirror image of that in sites on the right, I suppose (sites read by far fewer people than will read the Big Media pieces described in the quote).

The whole thing is sad, but seems like an inevitable consequence of an increasingly insane scrabbling for overly coveted spots at elite schools. I’m proud to have raised a kid in college who would never dream of such cheating, and who probably would have disowned her parents if we had proposed such a thing.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

207 Responses to “The College Admissions Indictment”

  1. It’s an interesting mirror to hold up. As you state, Patterico, the idea of a large donation = admission of a child has long and rich tradition in American academia. But this was so thumb fingered and brazen.

    Sort of like Ted Kennedy hiring someone to take a Spanish exam for him, right?

    What saddens me on social media is how minorities are infuriated, and bring up how some folks state that minority admissions are not always based on talent, test scores, etc. Ahem.

    This is why any attempt to have differential rules—a flexible yardstick, based on either cold hard cash, or on ethnicity—no matter how good the intent, simply creates more anger and hatred.

    What surprised me the most was the effort to get a student extra time on SATs based on a mythical “learning disability.” More and more students get extra time on exams, etc, while in college anyway…and it definitely works against people from less affluent families (because in order to get that designation for extra time, a series of evaluations need to be carried out). And naturally, students who don’t have that advantage are resentful.

    Such a mess.

    Who I actually feel sorry for? The students who did not know their parents had done such things to gain them admission. Can you imagine the impact on those poor/rich kids?

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  2. It is sad. And ridiculous.

    But I must disagree with your friend about Malia. If the daughter of two alumni, one of who became President of the United States, does not qualify for admission, nobody does. Egalitarianism is the gateway drug to Socialism.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Parents (and institutions) get in trouble when they lose sight of their original goals.

    Joe Miller (64cdc0)

  4. I don’t feel sorry for the kids of parents who cheated for them. Things like this don’t just happen once. It is a habit, just like honesty.

    I feel sorry for all the celebrity and/or rich kids who actually got into elite colleges on merit. Now they will all be tainted even more, just like minorities who succeeded on merit but know that some will always wonder if they relied on merit or affirmative action.

    DRJ (15874d)

  5. I wonder why the parents didn’t just go the standard route of writing a huge donation check to the school. That’s still legal, right?

    Because they were not the originators of the conspiracy.

    They were sold on this. The contacted William Singer first as a college admissions counselor.

    What they being offered wss also a lot cheaper than a donation check would be (which by the way, because of the tax impllications, and maybe the college’s own reputation cannot be guaranteed,and it probably also has to be done a few years or started a few years in advance. An uncompetely filled pledge probably works best.)

    Jared Kushner’s father Charles Kushner gave $2.5 to Harvard in the hopes of getting him into H (he got in)

    Now here’s the thing: The parents were cheated. Not just because this is not really worth it, but because Mr. Singer didn’t give them the best advice. But rather told them to do something that would make him the most money.

    What do I mean??

    He told them he had the sideways door. But the true sideways door is to transfer in from another college. That’s what Barack Obama did to get into Columbia University.

    And they could even probably start right away as a non-matriculating student, just taking whatever courses they want. Yes, the tuition will be higher, but they’re willing to spend money, no?

    The surprising thing is that violating the law was not a red line for anyone. Of course, the promoter, William Singer, did not alert people or remind people of the fact that they were breaking the law. He just discussed it as unethical, and also of course cautioned them to keep it secret (that is, discussed the need to not get caught) because of academic and career consequences to the student.

    Firther on Obama: Barack Obama some years afetr graduation got into Harvard Law School because of some connections he made while in Chicago. Then he got elected President of the Harvard Law Review on the upteenth ballot of a contested convention. He was someone who could get the votes of some radicals (in large part because he was black) but also of the more conservative students.

    That would probably make a very scintillating story (that convention) if anyone would be able to find out the facts and write it. But I don’t think Barack Obama wants anyone to tell it.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  6. What lieawatha did was worse.

    mg (8cbc69)

  7. The students weren’t told in some cases that the SAT or ACT scores had been altered, but of course they knew they didn’t play for any teamin high school and wouldn’t play in college if they got in.

    If they were in staged photos, they knew they were staged (but in some cases their faces were photoshopped into so a picture of somebody else, sometimes a stock photo; or it was apicture of somebody else altogether that were submitted.

    The students were probably not told of any bribes either, for security reasons if nothing else. Singer probably discussed the details as little as possible with the parents.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  8. A sad state of affairs. Just to think of all the hard-working students who could have made it on their own merit.

    I would hazard a guess that many of these adults are among those who preen and signal about virtues.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  9. Still, I don’t see what business it is of the FBI’s and the Justice Department’s. Those people get too big a chunk of the taxpayers’ money that they don’t know what to do with, other than getting themselves in the news, I think.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. What I suspect is that this could be an exampole of the corrupt FBI.

    1) They seemed to have dropped or abandoned another investigation.

    2) They seem to focus on the poarents instead of the instigator of the conspiracy, who pled guilty.

    3) This cannot be organized from scracth but only could be done if there was a pre-exisitng much wider criminal conspiracy before it started. But I don’t know if there is any pressure on Singer to turn on someone.

    4) The U.S. Attorney doesn’t seem entuirely conversant with the facts, so he was brought in late.

    5) This case was filed by the U.S. Attorney in Boston but tehre doesn’t seem to eb any Massachusetts connection.

    6) This case was investigated by the FBI field office in Boston It’s been some years since Whitey Bulger’s corruption but that has never been fully gone into.

    7) About 800 students were involved most probably not beyond the statute of limitations but only 33 random parents were arrested. Now probably the reasons forthast are:

    A) They can only handle so much.

    B) They mostly indicted those who incriminated themselves in taped conversations instigated by the promoter. I think he’s getting a plea deal.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  11. 11. nk (dbc370) — 3/13/2019 @ 8:53 am

    Still, I don’t see what business it is of the FBI’s and the Justice Department’s. Those people get too big a chunk of the taxpayers’ money that they don’t know what to do with, other than getting themselves in the news, I think.

    What I think this could be is that someone in the FBI was bribed to make another case go away.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  12. Well, you can’t trust anything the media reports, and this case is no exception, but I tend to agree with you, Sammy. The whole setup has an icky feel.

    I saw something worse than this in a very popular movie. (May be slightly off-color for work.)

    nk (dbc370)

  13. This is just really bad parenting. Along with the dishonesty, I wonder why they believed (and convinced their kids) that their future had to include (top-notch) colleges – even if the kids had zero interest or motivation for that track. If they had no clue what they wanted to do, why not do two years at community and see what interested them, or how about get a job and see what shook out? This speaks to the misleading belief that college is for every kid, and that every kid deserves/needs to go to college. This is no longer true. Also, I think I read that Huffman’s daughter had a YouTube channel with a ton of subscribers, so why not come up with a solid business plan and monetize it?

    Dana (023079)

  14. 1… not a humorous subject, Simon… but I do admit to a chuckle thinking about Ted Kennedy asking “donde esta la biblioteca?”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  15. Limericking
    @Limericking
    Rich parents are asked to respect
    How colleges choose and select.
    A bribe for admission
    Is fine on condition
    It’s suitably large and direct.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  16. Dana, I think the “internet influencer” you reference is Lori Loughlin’s daughter, “Olivia Jade.”

    That YouTube channel of hers just makes me so very sad.

    What is interesting to me is that the husbands of these actresses are not being charged? Am I reading this correctly? Felicity Huffman got cuffed and taken from her home at 6AM. Lori Laughlin is “surrendering” to the FBI.

    I am decidedly not an attorney. But why aren’t the husbands being charged? Maybe I am missing something.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  17. It’s mind-boggling that actress Lori Loughlin, who is due to surrender to authorities this morning for her involvement, took such a huge risk for so her daughter could get in college:

    I don’t know how much of school I’m going to attend, but I’m going to go in and talk to my deans and everyone and try and balance it all. Um, but I do want the experience of game days, partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys know.

    Apparently, she is the one that has a big YouTube channel.

    And speaking of her parents:

    Last week, Olivia Jade told “The Zach Sang Show” that “my parents really wanted me to go (to college) because both of them didn’t go,” before jokingly calling them “hypocrites.”

    “But I’m so happy they made me go,” she added.

    The beauty guru also revealed that her father “faked his way through” college.

    “He, like, built his whole entire brand (Mossimo Supply Co.) and he wasn’t actually, like, ever … enrolled in college,” she said during the interview on March 8. “But he, like, faked his way through it and then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought (was) going to college. That’s, like, such a different time. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that, but it’s OK.”

    Dana (023079)

  18. Colonel, it is sad, but I think most of us have long known that certain rich people get advantages that others don’t. What bothers me is when they mess that up too. Ted Kennedy did all that and more, and was still lionized.

    We can say that that all happened when he was young, except he was still doing awful stuff as an adult.

    So it saddens me still more that our ethical standards in society can be often modified due to party affiliation.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  19. Yes, Simon Jester, Loughlin’s daughter. I haven’t seen why the dads weren’t arrested too. Perhaps they didn’t have any knowledge of what happened, or perhaps there were no incriminating emails from them… What is awful is that Huffman was arrested at gunpoint:

    seven Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived at the Desperate Housewives alum’s Los Angeles home at 6 a.m. on Tuesday and had their guns drawn as they ordered her to surrender. Huffman, her husband, William H. Macy, and their two daughters, Sofia, 18, and Georgia, 16, were reportedly asleep at the time of the arrest.

    As I understand it, the use of guns during an arrest is discretionary, so why would one woman pose such a threat? Was she considered a big flight risk? Or was it all just a dog and pony show so the masses can smirk about a fall of the rich and mighty? If so, that’s pretty low.

    Dana (023079)

  20. $1.2 Million to get your kid into Yale. That is utterly insane.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  21. Simon, I think Laughlin’s husband was charged and arrested. Huffman’s husband (Macy) may be charged but what I read is the wiretap revealed him discussing bribes for his younger daughter but no bribes were ever paid. Talking about it but not doing it probably isn’t a crime.

    DRJ (15874d)

  22. It might have been a show, Dana, especially in California if the media was alerted. Or maybe they feared there was enhanced security since two celebrities lived there.

    DRJ (15874d)

  23. DRJ, you are correct; I just read about LL’s husband being charged, posting bail, and being released.

    Dana, I agree completely.

    Some teenagers are quite superficial, of course. But others are deadly serious about their lives. I feel for them.

    And, though I don’t have the details, my understanding is that some of the teenagers did not know their parents were doing this. If true, just imagine the impact.

    But yes, it comes back to parenting. Ugh.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  24. A teenage girl who did not play soccer magically became a star soccer recruit at Yale.

    Well, she self-identified as a soccer star. So she should be treated as one. Feelings, that is all that counts.

    True story. A couple of months ago, my kids had off. So I took half a day off and we went to an Escape Room as an activity. I asked to use the bathroom, and they directed me to a small room. On the wall was a poem by Maya Angelou:

    I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

    I almost gagged. Feelings, that is all that matters. That is what the next generation is being taught. Actions and words mean nothing, all that matters is how you feel. If you feel offended, then the other guy is Hitler.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  25. How could the students who had “help” from a proctor or who were admitted as athletes not know? (The athletes had to reject their scholarships and elected not to participate in the sport after admission.) I understand that maybe not all the students had these scenarios but it appears they all had something fishy happening.

    DRJ (15874d)

  26. They really didnt like aportsnight or transamerica, so how did this investigation start out that singer was the first to flip, did he demand too much of one parent?

    Narciso (21eb6d)

  27. The ones who had others take test for them, had to know.

    Narciso (21eb6d)

  28. But let’s assume some did not know. Maybe it will make them doubt their parents’ faith in them. Or maybe they will all view this as using their money to buy the best colleges they can afford, just as they buy the best houses, cars, clothes, restaurants, and entertainment.

    DRJ (15874d)

  29. I agree. I have always been called old fashioned, but this remains an issue of honor.

    When I was in graduate school, we had an “Honor Code” for the undergraduates (it was quite a fancy, expensive school). As a teaching assistant/instructor, I was not permitted to be in the room with them during examinations. That was that to presume that they were cheating.

    So I sat outside and waited for students to step out to ask questions.

    I asked students, “Would you report it if you saw something cheating during an exam?” (as they are supposed to do according to the Honor Code. Of course not, was the reply. I’m no snitch.

    Sigh.

    If we don’t instill a sense of honor, why would anyone have one?

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  30. The whole this is more than “sad.”

    It’s criminal.

    Yeah, the parents were wrong to attempt this. But this jazz ain’t all on them; there’s call and response. There’s sloppy oversight: had these university staffers been more closely monitored, and these “coaches” just said “no” to bribes, this would have been stopped right there, before it started. Instead, they took the grea$e. Equally disturbing is the corrupt complicity of the testing services. And what makes anyone think this stops with these few sports nd thoe institutions nmed? We could start questioning names and disciplines across the board in typical Tucka Carlson/Jeanine Pirro/Fox News fashion. Not sayin’, just askin’ a question, as they cluck. There’s a difference between ‘legally’ donating a building, which in the end, can benefit all – and illegally fixing entrance credentials to benefit just one.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. 19… Dana… that’s, like, sooo sad on many different levels. I’m sitting here and I’m, like, bumfuzzled about how, like, we ever got into this mess.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  32. I’m sorry. I can’t take this seriously. You see, I’ve read these kind of stories before. Not about colleges. About super-elite preschools, kindergartens, and elementary schools. Did I say preschools? Yes, I said preschools. Parents will go to great lengths for their children. $1.2 million to get your kind into Yale? Why not? What percentage is it of your wealth?

    nk (dbc370)

  33. This is great!! Congrats to the FBI! It resonates-like televised instances of DMV seizing disabled placards from other cheaters. Like the prosecution of Leona Helmsley did (“Only the little people pay taxes.”). No one likes a cheater!

    Plus: the “Quality Journalism” from fungible gasbags Abcarian, Hiltzik, Skelton, Decker, Dolan and McNarmara et. al., missed it. And it had been in process for years. Just like they missed Me Too, uncovered by a reporter in NY.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82)

  34. I take it seriously, nk, because it hurts applicants who were better qualified but I agree it happens at all levels. I suspect some never dreamed it was a crime. They were just gaming the system the way they have at every level.

    DRJ (15874d)

  35. Oh, I understand all y’all’s points of view.

    nk (dbc370)

  36. Under the table bribery nk???

    I suspect some never believe it was a crime.

    Fixing results? Bribery? I’m certain they knew it was or why keep it quiet. They believed it was so elaborately subtle- they could get away with it. For this to have worked, you had to be willing to accept bribes.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  37. This whole episode would be productive if it served to de-mythologize and deflate the value of a degree from Yale or Harvard or any of these other schools – but it won’t, because Americans have short memories and a lack of capacity for critical thinking.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  38. One more anecdote.

    An old college friend of mine, whom I see only occasionally, has been in computer programming for over 30 years. He heads a team of programmers at one of the top financial institutions in the country.

    I recently sat next to him at a wedding reception. He told me that the new generation of Millenial programmers are much harder to work with – they have be coddled and bribed with all kinds of perks to perform.

    We are headed for hard times, I’m afraid.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  39. The value of a degree from a Harvard or Yale is the elite network you get into. For girls, a better chance at a rich husband.

    nk (dbc370)

  40. 39.

    It has a great deal of value is you’re smart but poor. Americans know this and the drive to get their kids into a top college-to study something other than gender studies- reflects that. Just as it did decades ago when those colleges were built, and funded.

    Contrary to liberals who sneer that common people are anti-intellectuals, the People are no such thing. They have great respect for real ones, and justified disdain for counterfeits.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82)

  41. “but it won’t, because Americans have short memories and a lack of capacity for critical thinking.”

    I’m curious… do you include yourself in among those you’ve disparaged?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  42. The whole this is more than “sad.”

    It’s criminal.

    Hence the indictments for fraud.

    Bored Lawyer (998177)

  43. The college terminology for some of this scheme is called an accommodation. It is how students who need extra time on tests or other help get permission for that. It applies during the application process and after they enroll. For instance, if your kid broke an arm/hand and needed more time to take the test because it was the dominant hand used for writing.

    The process of getting an accommodation is not easy. It must be documented and there is no way to do it without the kid and the parents being involved. The various colleges and testing companies fight giving accommodations because they can be abused, hence the need for bribes, too.

    People should know this is illegal but we have a lot of laws and a populace that doesn’t understand a lot of laws. Many probably think it is ok if there is a company doing it for years. They are happy to be one of the “lucky” ones who know about it.

    DRJ (15874d)

  44. The chase for status and the sidestepping of meritocracy. Sure, the Ivy League schools can be as much about network building….and getting into the club….but the reality is that this is undergrad….yes foundational skills are learned….but there is very little difference between what is taught at the Ivies versus a top-tier state university. Yes there are more high validators…..and more students with a good understanding of how to learn…..having already embraced habits of success….but at the end of the day, an undergrad degree in business, political science, engineering, or nursing is just a spring board for the next act. There is nothing magical about an undergrad degree from Harvard…..that’s what is so silly about this. You still have to have ambition, creativity, and persistence to actually then do something in life.

    Is anyone really surprised that rich people may try to game the system….cut in line…..over-value status….and pretentiously cluck about Haaarrrvard? Sure I want to see cheaters caught…..but here I’m more embarrassed about the foolishness of it all….and missing the point of what an education is all about.

    AJ_Liberty (165d19)

  45. I can’t understand how anyone is taken by surprise by this. College athletics has been crooked forever.

    mg (8cbc69)

  46. Collegiate couch casting

    mg (8cbc69)

  47. @29. Or as Tucka Carlson would query in Fox Noose style, “I’m not sayin’ all college coaches or profs and testing services are on the take, willing to accept under-the-desk-bribes — I’m just asking a question.”

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  48. 2. Simon Jester (c8876d) — 3/13/2019 @ 8:23 am

    Sort of like Ted Kennedy hiring someone to take a Spanish exam for him, right?

    ted Kennedy didn’t do that. I don’t think he had an allowance that would allow him to do that, or had the ability.

    If any money changed hands, I would think that Joseph P. Kennedy did that. In 1951. I think Ted Kennedy had to leave college for a year. A website says he was in the army for two years.

    Wikipedia says:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy

    In his first semester, Kennedy and his classmates arranged to copy answers from another student during the final examination for a science class.[12] At the end of his second semester in May 1951, Kennedy was anxious about maintaining his eligibility for athletics for the next year,[2] and he had a classmate take his place at a Spanish exam.[13][14] The ruse was immediately discovered and both students were expelled for cheating.[13][15] In a standard Harvard treatment for serious disciplinary cases, they were told they could apply for readmission within a year or two if they demonstrated good behavior during that time.[13][16]

    In June 1951, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army and signed up for an optional four-year term that was shortened to the minimum of two years after his father intervened.[13] Following basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird in Maryland for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped without explanation after a few weeks.[13] He went to Camp Gordon in Georgia for training in the Military Police Corps.[13] In June 1952, Kennedy was assigned to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris, France.[2][13] His father’s political connections ensured that he was not deployed to the ongoing Korean War.[2][17] While stationed in Europe, he traveled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn in the Pennine Alps.[18] He was discharged after 21 months in March 1953 as a private first class.[13][18]

    Kennedy re-entered Harvard in the summer of 1953 and improved his study habits.[

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  49. What surprised me the most was the effort to get a student extra time on SATs based on a mythical “learning disability.” More and more students get extra time on exams, etc, while in college anyway…and it definitely works against people from less affluent families (because in order to get that designation for extra time, a series of evaluations need to be carried out).

    I think it may have started with people on Medicaid, though. But they were considered learning disabled for a long time.

    The problem is this, like service animals, or, for that matter, workman’s compensation, is very subjective, and it can’t be anything but subjective even in the best of circumstances.

    The College Board I think is aware of the problem, and has tried for years now to make test scores not too dependent on time.

    It probably gives a student only a minor advantage, and maybe mostly only if they are the sort of person to get nervous.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  50. Worked my way thru the best school I could get into and that did more to prepare me for adult life than the education.

    I have friends with kids in their late 20s with degrees from ‘better’ schools who are still living at home, spouting off about the USA being the worst country in history because of what they’ve been taught and they can’t secure a high-paying job so the entire system needs to be gutted.

    When I turned 18 I was already out on my own.

    harkin (58beea)

  51. OT- A broken clock is right twice a day: Trump grounds all Boeing 737 Max 8 & 9s.

    A win for common sense.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  52. in ameica we follow the golden rule = those with the gold rule! ask dubya how he got into collage and texas air national guard. trump had his collage record sealed and kushner’s old man bought him in. legacy enrollments are as american as apple pei to paraphrase h. rap brown.

    lany (e824d0)

  53. Cheers to you, harkin.

    mg (8cbc69)

  54. 32. DCSCA (797bc0) — 3/13/2019 @ 9:58 am

    had these university staffers been more closely monitored, and these “coaches” just said “no” to bribes, this would have been stopped right there, before it started.

    If they’d just said no, Willliam “Rick” Singer would have just tried another offer, or another coach, maybe in another sport, or maybe even failed to gain admission for one particular student in one particular college.

    I’m sure plenty said no.

    This would have had a chance of being stopped right there, if the coach had told everybody he or she could, including the college newspaper. Although maybe the coach might gotten into trouble instead. Maybe the bribe offer came only after other things, after he had some arrangementt with him already.

    Singer had control of two test taking centers. He needed, and had, both a proctor and the test site coordinator.

    And what makes anyone think this stops with these few sports nd thoe institutions named?

    I think the people indicted were quite possibly thrown overboard to save other crimes or corruption. This focus on the parents is very strange.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  55. No doubt Simon Jester could shed some light on this- does he know of or has he ever been approached by a student[s] or parent[s] or an administrator and pressured to change a grade, modify an evaluation or offered a “bribe” in the form of, say, a sexual favor, money, goods, services- maybe a vacation trip and so forth? In the course of business some years ago, caught a freelancer plagiarist red-handed, confronted same with the very piece he stole from, literally threw the SOB out of my office, passed the word to colleagues [and potential clients for the fella] inside and out of CBS and denied payment. This isn’t a game for one: it’s the sort of crap that only succeeds if two or more want to play.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  56. 54…

    You need coolin’
    lany I’m not foolin’
    We’re gonna send ya
    Back fir schoolin’
    A-way down inside
    A-lany you need it
    We gonna give you collage
    We gonna give you collage
    Gotta whole lotta fool
    Gotta whole lotta fool
    Gotta whole lotta fool
    Gotta whole lotta fool

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  57. 52… funny how that works, harkin!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  58. 21. Dana (023079) — 3/13/2019 @ 9:33 am

    so why would one woman pose such a threat? Was she considered a big flight risk? Or was it all just a dog and pony show so the masses can smirk about a fall of the rich and mighty? If so, that’s pretty low.

    The arrest itself was not a dog and pony show because it wasn’t photographed. There was a deeper bureaucratic reason for that. It came from considering the parents the chief targets, and they were thorough in that. The parents were the targets of the investigation, and the perpetrators of the fraud were confidential witnesses!

    You would think they shoudl be the chief targets, or if not, it would be someone involved even more in criminal activity. Remember one thing – this arose out of another investigation.

    Now this happened with the college bribery scandal Henry Hill was involved in, but in that case the person they were using him as a witness against was the same person they suspected of arranging and carrying out the Lufthansa airpoert cargo robbery, Jimmy Burke (“Jimmy the Gent”).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Boston_College_basketball_point_shaving_scandal

    While being questioned on the drug and heist crimes, Hill inadvertently revealed that he had recently participated in a point-shaving scheme involving the Boston College basketball team and various underworld figures. Hill offered to relate the full story of the swindle if federal officials would guarantee him full immunity and would agree to intercede on his behalf to convince state officials to drop the drug charges pending in state court.

    Henry Hill had almost not considered a crime. Certainly not a big one.

    https://www.tiebreaker.com/henry-hill-boston-college-goodfellas/

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  59. How could the students who had “help” from a proctor or who were admitted as athletes not know? (The athletes had to reject their scholarships and elected not to participate in the sport after admission.)

    Athletic scholarships aren’t always involved where recruited athletes are concerned, DRJ. I’m really really intrigued about the fact that the USC water polo coach — who has won a combined 16 national championships with the men’s and women’s teams — was caught up in this, and I may blog about this later. But the reason that this can fly under the radar is because men’s water polo only gets something like five scholarships, so when you consider that the squad probably has 20-some players (and likely travels with around 15) you are looking at a bunch of players who are either on just a partial scholarship or are playing as walk-ons. I imagine the way it works is that every year the coach gives a list to the admissions office regarding six to eight applicants who might be able to play for the team, knowing that only maybe two or three of them would get any scholarship money to play. In that regard, it’s easy to throw in an extra name when you know the kid won’t even bother to come out for the team.

    The one that really shocks me though is the Stanford applicant who pretended to be a football player. Why you would do that with a high-profile program in a sport where it’s very easy to confirm with the coaches or even look online and find out whether the kid is legit is quite confusing to me. That takes either a great deal of stupidity or a great deal of nerve.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  60. 58 truth hurts.

    lany (e824d0)

  61. “He told me that the new generation of Millenial programmers are much harder to work with – they have be coddled and bribed with all kinds of perks to perform.”

    Here’s an alternative explanation: the “Millennial” programmers are better at valuing their work than he was.

    “We are headed for hard times, I’m afraid.”

    What’s the matter with kids these days? – Every generation ever.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  62. As a friend emailed (he can identify himself here if he likes):

    We’re going to hear a lot in coming days about legacy admissions at … elite schools, and we’ll hear about Jared Kushner at Harvard, Donald Trump and his three children at Penn, and probably various Bush Yalies. What we won’t hear about is whether Malia Obama was really deserving of admittance to Harvard, or whether Chelsea Clinton was truly Stanford Material, or about the Gore and Kennedy families at Harvard.

    That was me. And wouldn’t you know it, as if on cue here comes perry with the “look at the Bushes, look at the Trumps” argument just 30 minutes ago. He never fails to fail.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  63. @64. I don’t see this as strictly an academia thing.

    It’s about bribery; accepting payoffs. It takes two or more for this kind of criminal corruption to work. Be it at Stanford Univerity or Trump University. And in this case, it could have been stopped before it got started, right at the university gates, if the college staff involved had just said no. But they didn’t.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  64. @63. ‘Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way…’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3edtd9AkWg

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  65. It’s about bribery; accepting payoffs. It takes two or more for this kind of criminal corruption to work.

    We’re conflating two separate things here (in fact, potentially more than that, but let’s stick with two for now): using bribes and cheating to get your kid into a “prestigious” school, and using your alumni status and network to get your kid into a “prestigious” school. My email to Patterico was just to make the point that people who disparage the Harvards and Stanfords (and USCs and Wake Forests) of the world aren’t going to limit their criticism that the wealthy and well-connected undertake devious methods to secure a spot for their kids, they are also going to re-litigate the notion of legacy admissions and family dynasties, which I think are an understandable strategy of private institutions to ensure donor support.

    A different matter are universities who enjoy giving a spot to the child of an A-list celebrity or other public figure who has the requisite Q-rating in order to maintain all of the right connections. Here’s my cynical assessment for the day: B-listers like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman had to resort to these tricks to land their kid a spot at USC whereas Angelina Jolie or Beyonce would probably be able to go straight to the dean of admissions or president of the university to secure admission for their kids. But that debate can be saved for a later day.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  66. @4. Huffman and Loughlin are low-hanging fruit– reporting by lazy TeeVee types. Review the list: for instance, GOP media babe Elisabeth Kimmel; whadda sweetheart. There’s plenty of this to shovel-spin across the barnyard.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  67. @68. Thing is, as noted earlier, donating a facility- library, research lab, etc., ‘legally’ that in the end can benefit everyone is significantly different than the criminality of fixing grades, faking credentials and bribing staff, under the table, to benefit one. I see it as a straight forward case of bribery.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  68. Remember the quiz show scandals? Same difference; the fix was in: bribery.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. 69. Huffman and Loughlin I think are the only two actresses, and may be the most famous.

    34. nk (dbc370) — 3/13/2019 @ 10:08 am

    34. 34.I’m sorry. I can’t take this seriously. You see, I’ve read these kind of stories before. Not about colleges. About super-elite preschools, kindergartens, and elementary schools. Did I say preschools? Yes, I said preschools. Parents will go to great lengths for their children. $1.2 million to get your kind into Yale? Why not? What percentage is it of your wealth

    In fact an episode of ‘Full House’ starring Lori Loughlin dealt with that in 1993.

    Only, in the episode, she is too honest to do that and rejects that approach.

    https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lori-loughlin-lectured-uncle-jesse-on-preschool-scam-on-full-house-25-years-before-college-admissions-scam

    Some 25 years earlier, Loughlin’s “Full House” character, Aunt Becky, lectured husband Uncle Jesse (played by John Stamos) when he tried to scam their twin sons’ way into an elite preschool. In the episode, Jesse claims to be a diplomat and alleges that sons Nicky and Alex have skills including speaking multiple languages and playing musical instruments — despite their being just toddlers.

    Becky rejects Jesse’s attempts to “lie for” their kids, telling him, “I know you want what’s best for them, but you know what? Maybe the fast track isn’t it. I mean, Nicky and Alex are normal and healthy kids, and whatever track they’re on, they seem to be doing OK.”

    The episode is entitled “Be True to Your Pre-School”

    I think a link says you can watch it here:

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x595a9g

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  70. Oh I agree with you, DCSCA, with respect to the bribery case, and I support going though with the prosecution. But I reject the notion of trying to draw a straight line between bribery and legacy admissions, which it would appear some are trying to do.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  71. 70. DCSCA (797bc0) — 3/13/2019 @ 2:03 pm

    Thing is, as noted earlier, donating a facility- library, research lab, etc., ‘legally’ that in the end can benefit everyone is significantly different than the criminality of fixing grades, faking credentials and bribing staff, under the table, to benefit one. I see it as a straight forward case of bribery.

    Well, the ex-sailing coach of Stanford University, John Vandemoor, says (he said in court) that he accepetd nothing for himself, but only used the money to buy equipment for his team.

    (Of course there’s still a personal advantage in that.)

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  72. DCSCA @53.

    OT- A broken clock is right twice a day: Trump grounds all Boeing 737 Max 8 & 9s.

    he did that after every other country, including finally Canada, did that.

    Now the thing is, it is probably safe so long as the pilots actually know what’s causing the problem. But if they knew what’s causing the problem, why did Boeing let this continue. Third rate airlines and pilots couldn’t handle this. It might be the result of the pilot interacting with a buggy automatic pilot system.

    Donald Trump’s alcoholic brother who died early, was a pilot.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  73. 8. mg (8cbc69) — 3/13/2019 @ 8:44 am

    What lieawatha did was worse.

    Oh, they did that too. Faking ethnicity was included in William “Rick” Singer’s bag of tricks.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  74. “This whole episode would be productive if it served to de-mythologize and deflate the value of a degree from Yale or Harvard or any of these other schools – but it won’t, because Americans have short memories and a lack of capacity for critical thinking.”
    Leviticus (efada1) — 3/13/2019 @ 10:33 am

    Short memories and critical thinking have little to do with it. Those with illustrious degrees are loathe to admit it’s all bunk, and that admission would come in the form of hiring or promoting someone better from a lesser institution over one of their own. I’ve witnessed this mentality firsthand, and probably we all have.

    Munroe (a89442)

  75. 74. Vandemoor is one of those who already had aplea bargain arranged when this became public. he pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  76. This is te best claim that the U.S. Attorney could mmake for the link to the Boston area:`

    “Fake test scores, for example, were submitted to Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern.”

    I think the other, still secet, and mayeb abandoned investiation had much more to do with Boston.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  77. @69, the R representation in this blotter does tend the NT wing of the party though, a ton of Romney and Aunt Becky must have fell for Rubio the same way the female conservative punditry did before the drink-a-lotsa-water debate.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  78. JVW (54fd0b) — 3/13/2019 @ 1:14 pm

    The one that really shocks me though is the Stanford applicant who pretended to be a football player. Why you would do that with a high-profile program in a sport where it’s very easy to confirm with the coaches or even look online and find out whether the kid is legit is quite confusing to me. That takes either a great deal of stupidity or a great deal of nerve.

    Wasn’t that USC, or are we taking about two different students here?

    William McGlashan wanted to get his son into USC. He volunteered photos of his son playing lacrosse, but Singer told him that was no good because USC didn’t have a lacrosse team. He told him he would pick a sport.

    He made him into a “Special teams” player and passed him off not as a regular football player, but as a kicker/punter. There are many fewer people like that.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  79. 51. Incidentally, the learning disability qualification wasn’t intended to give the student a leg up while taking the test.

    It resulted, according to the U.S. Attorney, in such children taking the exam individually with one of the administrators he had bribed.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  80. It was Loughlin’s daughters who pretended to be athletes at crew.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  81. The younger one is a big blogger, whoo gets (got!) money for mentioning brand names..

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  82. I heard Joe Digenava on Howie Carr say Rosenstein put this on hold because of friends caught in the sting.

    mg (8cbc69)

  83. Massachusetts house just passed a bill that says if your 17 year old daughter is questioning her identity and you as a parent take them to someone for help, the state will take your daughter give her hormone drugs and make her some other families son.
    Cant make it up.

    mg (8cbc69)

  84. kimmel backed the candidacy of de maio, who was up against the democratic machine, there’s also an Egyptian exec for wynn enterprises, but he along with the 80% of contributions, last cycle, gave to the democrats, plus he was demoted in 2016

    narciso (d1f714)

  85. On the other hand, AOC got an economics degree from Boston U without learning canceled future tax credit incentives aren’t money in the bank or what constitutes the three branches of government so people getting cheated all round.

    harkin (09d352)

  86. how did dubya get into the texas air national guard so he didn’t get drafted and sent to vietnam when their was 2000 applications ahead of him ???

    lany (6705fe)

  87. how did dubya get into the texas air national guard so he didn’t get drafted and sent to vietnam when their was 2000 applications ahead of him ???

    He got Bill Clinton’s mobbed-up step-uncle in Little Rock to pull some strings?

    nk (dbc370)

  88. JVW,

    It doesn’t have to involve a full scholarship. I read the UT applicant qualified for a book scholarship simply by being an athlete. He had to reject it when he stayed in school and did not participate with the team. (Presumably his parents paid the out of state tuition rate.) Don’t you think there were similar issues for students in some of the less noticeable sports that don’t get the benefits or attention of the high profile sports?

    DRJ (15874d)

  89. Wasn’t that USC, or are we taking about two different students here?

    It might be a different case; I’m going by memory from what I read last night.

    But even with USC, it’s still amazing that you would lie about football. Although if you were to do so, lying about being a kicker is probably your best shot. Most won’t offer a scholarship to a kicker straight out of high school, though I still think it would be hard to explain why the kid didn’t play for his high school team.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  90. @90 dubya’s old man bush got it for him. the golden rule=those with the gold rule. AOC is still paying off her student debt.

    lany (6705fe)

  91. “On the other hand, AOC got an economics degree from Boston U without learning canceled future tax credit incentives aren’t money in the bank or what constitutes the three branches of government so people getting cheated all round.”

    If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear that Donald Trump, with his econ degree from Wharton, thinks that exporting countries pay for tariffs.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  92. Don’t you think there were similar issues for students in some of the less noticeable sports that don’t get the benefits or attention of the high profile sports?

    Oh for sure. In fact, my point was that if you are going to lie about your kid playing a sport and if you’re going to rope a coach into supporting your lie, you need to pick a minor sport with very few scholarships given out so that when you kid unsurprisingly decides not to play you don’t have to worry about refunding any scholarship money.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  93. All rich kids are probably getting needled by the scholorship crew.

    mg (8cbc69)

  94. i assume this happens because schools separate the admissions and athletic aspects. Once a student get admitted, the school leaves the student to the coach/athletic department to handle — just as the academic department handles students enrolled in its areas. If coaches don’t blow the whistle — and why would they since it might reveal the bribe? — the student can stay enrolled as long as they pay full price.

    DRJ (15874d)

  95. @75. He ‘did that’ when Boeing figleafed w/satdata suggesting in-flight anomalies w/t EA mishap to ground the aircraft while at the same time reaffirming confidence to the marketplace in the aircraft for the stockholders. There’s a lot of $ at issue. In fact, it’s ‘not safe’ – there’s a significant software patch in work for the flight software to bypass issues for 737 Max to be in place by the end of April. The FAA has been reactive, not proactive on this one; not a good sign. Past time for Trump to get his thumb out of hiz azz, off the twitter, away from the golf course and on the job nominating a f/t administrator; there are lives at stake.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  96. If coaches don’t blow the whistle — and why would they since it might reveal the bribe? — the student can stay enrolled as long as they pay full price.

    Yep. It’s actually an ingeniously devious plan.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  97. Were they all accepted as scholarship players? I get your curiosity about doing this with football. That seems strange to me, too, since that program get so much scrutiny. But doing it with the low profile sports is pretty smart. They need money and get little scrutiny.

    DRJ (15874d)

  98. We think alike. It is a smart plan for such a dumb plan.

    DRJ (15874d)

  99. @93. You can double check, but believe she can thank ol’1%Joe Biden for championing the change in the laws so she can’t bankrupt the college loans. Them Delaware banker ‘folks’ do love their Joe.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  100. @73. Agree. No issues w/a legacy donating a cancer research lab while wanting his kid to get considered for a slot. The other concern should be w/t corrupted testing services. That can cover a lot of disciplines. Won’t be surprised if this extends beyond the sporting venues.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  101. Communist Jane Sanders wasn’t bright enough to use this plan, as Burlington College was closed.

    mg (8cbc69)

  102. @85. Sloppy Joe.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  103. Were they all accepted as scholarship players?

    No, the water polo players certainly were not. Every single good high school water polo player in the U.S. is known to all of the coaches. They way this worked is that Vavic probably told admissions, “Hey, this guys isn’t quite good enough to get a scholarship, but if he’s willing to walk on he could really help us out,” knowing of course that the kid didn’t play. But the admissions office never had to know this: as far as they are concerned the kid was a prospective water polo player who just didn’t pan out.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  104. I could imagine you could have done the same trick with the orchestra director. Bribe him or her to convince admissions that your child would be an excellent cello player in the school’s symphony orchestra, even though the kid has no idea what the instrument looks like. Nobody ever follows-up to ask if the kid ended up playing, and even if they did you could just say that the kid decided to concentrate on his or her studies instead.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  105. you know sloppy

    mg (8cbc69)

  106. @99. Yeah, well, what was the line from ‘Eight Men Out’–“What are they gonna do, call a cop?!”

    The whole matter stinks. The parents were jerks; the coaches should have known better.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  107. @108. So does Trump; it cost Sloppy Joe a gig. Trump 101: Ddress for success; don’t wear your lunch.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  108. 737 killers (including the man who strangled 12 year old Polly Klaas) will sleep a little easier tonight.

    Family and friends of their victims, not so much.

    harkin (09d352)

  109. Whoops – wrong thread

    harkin (09d352)

  110. Dammit, you’ve gotten me all riled up again!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  111. It is hard for me to understand why a coach would do this at UT. The coach earned $230k a year working as a tennis coach, and coaches at big colleges know unreported cash (let alone bribes) are not allowed. It is like they think they can do anything and no one cares.

    DRJ (15874d)

  112. 105… the only thing DiGenova was ever sloppy about was when he gave a thumbs-up to Eric Holder as AGOTUS.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  113. Everything’s BIG in Texas, sometimes even greed.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  114. If you have a gambling addiction as a coach and a bad few months $230,00.00/year won’t cover.

    mg (8cbc69)

  115. Maybe so, mg, but that is a big risk. I guess gamblers are risk takers.

    DRJ (15874d)

  116. But this is too widespread and successful to me. I think it was a clever scam and the people running it were clever at convincing people they could do it.

    DRJ (15874d)

  117. Too clever by half…

    Some incarceration would send a clear message.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  118. 115) Yes that was unfortunate, and illconsiderate of him.

    Narciso (78e8c2)

  119. @115. ‘The senior administration official said the couple [DiGenova & Toensing] looked disheveled when they came to meet with the president on Thursday, which helped convince Trump they weren’t the right fit for the team.’

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/25/trump-legal-team-russia-484544

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  120. I have no idea if they were gamblers, but bad gamblers can justify anything.

    mg (8cbc69)

  121. Elizabeth Warren has no sympathy for people who cheated to get their kids into college. Specifically, she said she has “zero” sympathy.

    https://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2019/03/13/know-hates-people-cheat-get-college-elizabeth-warren/

    harkin (09d352)

  122. I’m sorta on the NK side of the scale.
    I understand your concerns and curiosities, but I don’t care all that much about it myself.

    To DRJ and her curiousity on football at a major program, it has to be some program like preferred walk on (https://www.athleticscholarships.net/2014/02/05/the-meaning-of-a-preferred-walk-on.htm), or something else because football schools like USC only have so many scholarships to offer and if you’ve ever visited a recruiting site online, the fans know all about everyone. The head coach has an extreme disincentive to sell a spot to someone who is an obvious fake.

    The real issue for me here is to say thanks to all parents who have the character to raise their children well.

    steveg (a9dcab)

  123. @114. “Hitler had Europe. What did he want with Russia?!” – Duke Santos [Cesar Romero] ‘Ocean’s 11’ 1960

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  124. DRJ
    Then immediately after gaining admission, the bogus walk on would write a letter to the staff and withdraw for personal reasons in order to give that spot to another. Since walk ons pay their own way its almost harmless except way down the food chain… I don’t care much about private schools, but public universities like UT and UCLA should.

    steveg (a9dcab)

  125. Mike lee will vote for the illegals and against Americans. And Putin smiled.

    mg (8cbc69)

  126. @115. Joe DiSchevella.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  127. 124 – Her crime far out weighs these parents law breaking.

    mg (8cbc69)

  128. @107. If it was this successful and lucrative for so long, hard to believe it was limited to just sports. Won’t be surprised to hear other disciplines tainted in weeks to come.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  129. Mr henriguez of Hercules capital, you are the weakest link.

    Narciso (78e8c2)

  130. steveg,

    Thanks for that comment. I was trying to remember the term (preferred walkon) because UT just offered that to the younger brother of its current QB. But even that gets noticed at the big programs like UT, Stanford, USC and UCLA. I agree with JVW that this wouldn’t happen in schools like that but I guess it might in a smaller school. Using the less noticed sports makes a lot more sense, though.

    DRJ (15874d)

  131. @115. ‘The senior administration official said the couple [DiGenova & Toensing] looked disheveled when they came to meet with the president on Thursday, which helped convince Trump they weren’t the right fit for the team.’

    Those two lovebirds may have been getting after it in the elevator, for all anyone knows. Te salud!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  132. Correction: I agree with JVW that this wouldn’t happen in football programs in schools like that …

    It obviously happened but it would be surprising to me to see it happen in football.

    DRJ (15874d)

  133. Heh, so the smooth talkers are the leakers to haberman and entous and Harris

    Narciso (78e8c2)

  134. The average D1 football team has 30 walk-on players so maybe this could happen, but even the walk-on players at the big football schools get press. It is hard to imagine someone with no ability/background getting admitted at big schools.

    DRJ (15874d)

  135. Sean Combs son was the closest example in football; UCLA was about to get a lot if cheddar for a 5’8″ 2 star defensive back who played for a Westchester co. Or LI high school. The arrangement fell through. USC offered Masrer P’s son a ride ad the last man on the bench for donations and DeMar DeRozan, now of the Spurs.

    urbanleftbehind (1cb9fd)

  136. The LA Times has no sympathy for USC.

    DRJ (15874d)

  137. white privilege in action. felicity huffman’s arrest. black privilege affirmative action arrests fred hampton and mark clark. 12 year old black child playing cowboy with toy gun in cleveland park.

    lany (d82a7b)

  138. Today, USC said they’re going to review each student’s status on a ‘case by case’ basis.

    Now go Google ‘universities which have rescinded acceptance letters’ and peruse some of the rationales and institutions for same over the past few years. Everything from clerical errors to online posts.

    Compared to this criminality, they seem petty. Don’t see how any of these universities can allow any of these kids to remain enrolled. And those who have already graduated must have their credentials revoked.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  139. Jovan Vavic, the men’s and women’s water polo coach at USC, has 16 NCAA championships between the two teams (10 men, 6 women) and has been named national coach of the year a combined 15 times in his 24 years of coaching. He took over the men’s national team on an interim basis a few years back, and if he ever wanted the job full time it would almost assuredly be his for the asking. When he eventually retired at USC, he would no doubt have been honored with some sort of coach’s endowment or meeting room or something being named for him, and he would be welcome around campus for the rest of his life. He lives in Palos Verdes, and though as a private institution USC does not have to disclose his compensation, we know that the men’s and women’s water polo coach at UCLA made $233,000 in 2017, a year in which the UCLA men were national champs and the UCLA women were runners-up. Based upon Coach Vavic’s success and his long tenure, and with USC being a deeper-pocketed institution, it’s not hard to imagine that he pulls down at least $200k per year in base salary and probably gets bonuses of around $100k for each championship his team wins. It sure sounds like a good life.

    He threw it all away for the following, according to the indictment:

    63. Likewise, Singer and his co-conspirators made payments totaling $250,000 to a
    bank account at USC that funded water polo team. [sic]

    64. In exchange for these payments, VAVIC designated two students as recruits for the water polo team, thereby facilitating the students’ admission to USC.

    65. Singer also made private school tuition payments for children – under the guise of a fabricated scholarship – via checks drawn on one of the KWF charitable accounts and sent to the school via US. Mail, in exchange for commitment to designate Singer’s clients as recruits for the USC water polo team in the future.

    The “private school tuition payments for children” are supposed to be Vavic’s children, two of whom are already through college. Jovan Vavic was fired by USC yesterday.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  140. You’re on a roll, Perry. But let’s stick to college admissions. Like Bill Clinton’s “family” friend, a colonel, getting him into college ROTC to get a draft deferment, which ROTC then Clinton dropped when the lottery gave him a high enough number to guarantee he would not be drafted.

    nk (dbc370)

  141. Ah yes the bataan death March survivor, that Clinton sought to lecture him on the significance of war.

    Narciso (78e8c2)

  142. I assume most or all the students were minors when they were admitted so unless the schools can show a student knew there was an illegal act or an honor code violation, I wonder if the schools will blame the students?

    DRJ (15874d)

  143. USC offered Masrer P’s son a ride ad the last man on the bench for donations and DeMar DeRozan, now of the Spurs.

    That was cynical, but understandable. As you note, they got DeRozan, a top five recruit that year and an AAU teammate and close friend of young Lil’ Romeo, whom USC gave a questionable scholarship in a package deal. But there are lots of cases throughout history of a coach offering the super-stud’s buddy a scholarship in order to land the main guy. And USC pointed out that Lil’ Romeo helped them sell game tickets.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  144. One of these inverse “Ringers” would be the plot of a Lucas (1986) reboot.

    urbanleftbehind (1cb9fd)

  145. Jovan Vavic was fired by USC yesterday.

    It is to be hoped that Vavic confessed to everything, and USC showed him the same loyalty it demanded of him and hopefully not just taken the word of some lowlife looking to get a break on who knows what “unrelated crime” by becoming an FBI snitch.

    nk (dbc370)

  146. It sounds like the FBI had wiretaps and had Singer et al call the people involved and get admissions from them.

    DRJ (15874d)

  147. mg (8cbc69) — 3/13/2019 @ 2:50 pm

    I heard Joe Digenava on Howie Carr say Rosenstein put this on hold because of friends caught in the sting.

    And now that he;s quitting it goes ahead? If he put it on hold there’s another reason. Like the other investigation that this was a spinoff of. Or that the chief targets are the wrong people.

    This has only been going on since last May. Did Howie Carr name the person Rosenstein was supposedly protecting?? The chief culprit became an informer in September – against his customers (and a few coaches maybe.) Now Rosenstein might find something wrong with that. Without any one of the parents being a friend of his.

    Sammy Finkelman (b0ece0)

  148. Bouncing these kids out of college for fraudulent admission on faked credentials could be the best education these kids could get there.

    Life is unfair.

    “Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.” – Larson E. Whipsnade [W.C. Fields] ‘You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man’ 1939

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  149. @145. The ‘students’ are sort of irrelevant; it’s the bribes and faked credentials which are the issue. If Singer bribed a coach to accept enrollment of a pepperoni pizza w/$250,000 and a photo of it sailing a catamaran, Singer’s nailed, the coach is fired fortaking the bribe and the pizza gets eaten alive.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  150. 143. What I’ve been wondering is if Bill Clinton didn’t take chances with the draft lottery in 1969, but changed his date of birth after the lottery.

    I think maybe he could do it. He is the only politician listed in the 1980 Almanac of American Politics (the first one in which he appeared)without an exact date of birth but only a
    a month (August,1946) Could it be that in high school – and on his first passport he was using a different birthday? You know that whole thing about looking at his passport file I think was ginned up by Clinton himself – it inoculated anyone at looking at it. I was thinking in 1992 that what was there that anyone could discover? Supposedly it had something to do wih hiis visiting the Soviet Union in 1968? What would it show? We already knew about what countries he went to.

    I have never read any frst hand account of any Bill Clinton birthday when he was growing up.

    Sammy Finkelman (b0ece0)

  151. Full disclosure. 😉 My daughter played high school sophomore water polo last year, and this year, as a Junior, she is … can you guess? … in Junior Varsity. They had their first game last week, and won 15-4 despite fouls by the other team that in other circumstances would qualify as sexual assault. She is enjoying it and maybe she’ll keep at it even in college. She has not scoped out USC (yet), but she has toured UCLA and UCSD.

    nk (dbc370)

  152. What Dad said all those years ago “First you need honest people”

    Thud Muffle (5a4596)

  153. They said that this investigation began in May, but the New York Times reported that according to court filings that Rudy Meredith, the Yale women’s soocer coach began co-operating with the investigation in April. He was reportedly paid $400,000. Singer received $1,200,000. Meredith stepped down as coach in November.

    The earliest reported firing was that of Georgetown University;s tennis coah in December 2017 for violating university rules concerning admissions, He became tennis coah at the University of Rhode Island in 2018 but was placed on leave this Tuesday/

    The Wake Forest women’s volleyball coach, Bill Ferguson, is involved but I am not clear (from the NYT) whether he helped a client’s daughter, who had been wait-listed, gain admission to Wake Forest or to USC (which he left in 2016.) He got $100,000 for thst.

    USC is heavily involved. Donna Heinel, who oversaw admission of athletes for nearly ten years, was on the take from Singer. She collected $1.3 million (or that amout was put into various USC accounts) over 4 years. La

    st July she started a consulting job that paid her $20,000 a month. The water polo coach at USC, got $250,000 for getting two students admitted and scholarships at a private school for his children paid for by Singer. That was in exxchange for what you could call draft choices (students to be named later)

    $2 million dollars altogether was funneled to people associated with USC. Two soccer people got $350,000 for a youth soccer club they coached in exchane=ge for designating four students as recruits.

    Sammy Finkelman (b0ece0)

  154. mg @104. Jane Sanders got bank loans on the basis of pledges to donate to the school that did not, in fsct, exist, and on the basis of overestimating how much in future pledge would come in. In the meantime she overspent on expansion. Lacking the power of taxation, the school had to close.

    Sammy Finkelman (b0ece0)

  155. DSCCA @98. What does w/t stand for? Should that be w/r (with regard) I said the airplane was safe if the pilot understood how the airplane could malfunction.

    Sammy Finkelman (b0ece0)

  156. @158. w/t = with the

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  157. I thought the conservative/libertarian philosophy was follow the golden rule. those with the gold rule!

    lany (d82a7b)

  158. 150- Sammy – He did not, but Joe did call Rosenstein -“Little Rasputin”

    mg (8cbc69)

  159. Is Beto spanish for AOC?

    mg (8cbc69)

  160. If that’s true, Nars, you gotta dispatch one of the ejected from this realm, linea de Luz in Spanish they called him,

    urbanleftbehind (3439dc)

  161. 162, nope as evidenced by the existence of a large contingent of Dan Crenshaw-Beto voters in the formers 5th CD hugging the outer N and W portions of Houston. Both are caricatures, but one clearly has more character.

    urbanleftbehind (3439dc)

  162. After Obama and Trump, I would not be surprised if a goat was the next President. And not particularly upset or disappointed, neither. Goats are smart, tough, and independent animals.

    nk (dbc370)

  163. Well, said goat certainly stated their qualifications for being next on the same list as Alioto, Moscone, Feinstein, Agnos, Jordan, Brown, Newsom, Lee, and London.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  164. Ok, I was wrong. The original snitch was not Singer, it was a parent being investigated for securities fraud. Singer turned later.

    nk (dbc370)

  165. I wonder why the parents didn’t just go the standard route of writing a huge donation check to the school. That’s still legal, right? And it accomplishes the same thing. Maybe it’s harder to do if the parent isn’t an alum, huh?

    I wondered the same thing. If you want an actual answer, here goes:

    Some of the parents (likely the celebrities) have an idea that rich kids can get into any school because their parents buy their way in, but weren’t sure of exactly how it all worked. This corruption seemed as, well, reasonable as anything else.

    Some are too cheap. $500k is a lot less than $5 million.

    After reading the affidavit: some of their kids actually can’t do the work. They are so thoroughly mediocre (1000 SAT scores) that these elite schools actually wouldn’t take them, no matter how much money was on the table. That’s why they also had to fake the SAT scores.

    If you go the “development” route, your kid might have a long chat with the Dean of Admissions, at which point, it might come out that s/he actually cannot handle the work. “The first time I took my ACTs, I got a 22” may be the death knell of Junior getting into Georgetown. By going through athletics, the person taking the bribes knew very well that the kid wasn’t able to do the work, and therefore, presented the profile to Admissions without any damning evidence.

    There was a discussion in the affidavit about how some of the schools didn’t have any easy classes, so the student couldn’t go to those – s/he wouldn’t be able to hide and skate by.

    bridget (0d5a32)

  166. Just playing the game while poor and middle class Americans are left behind by this scam and by affirmative action.

    NJRob (0e30f6)

  167. I saw one student apologize for what his parents did – arrange for someone else to take the ACT/SAT while he took it at home. What high school kid thinks you can take that test at home?

    DRJ (15874d)

  168. 172. DRJ (15874d) — 3/14/2019 @ 2:42 pm

    172.I saw one student apologize for what his parents did – arrange for someone else to take the ACT/SAT while he took it at home. What high school kid thinks you can take that test at home?

    High School students don’t know the way the world works, and they know they don’t know the way the world works.

    I mean a lot of older people don’t know that when you call customer servicce at an 800 or other toll free number to a reputable commpany the company invariably announces its name first thing, (a few don’t) and even if it doesn’t, it does NOT start with our menu options have changed. That on;y happens when you dial the wrong number.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  169. And we don’t know exactly how this was arranged.

    Maybe it was possible, and maybe it is possible to take an SAT test at home in certain circumstances that might even be mentioned in SAT material..

    Because I read one variation of the scheme was to have someone be certified as learning disabled, and when that happened they got to take the test alone with a proctor – in this case the roctor was in the pay of William Singer.

    Now when I read that, I assumed it was in a side room in a test center. But maybe not.

    Did he say there was no procter?

    Or maybe was it at home the way sometimes a person can do test in a course at home. This is, of course, when the test is given via a computer and I think the SAT and ACT may no longer be pencil and paper but on a computer anyway. Even if not, it may be offered that way, too, as an alternative.

    A test can be conducted at home via computer is the test is done while connected to a computer where the student has to

    1) First sign in and also

    2) Have a webcam attached showing that there’s nobody else there in front of the computer answering questions. He would also

    3) Need to send a picture of his picture ID or maybe put it in front of the webcam.

    Even if this actually can’t be done with the ACT or SAT, a teenager could be fooled into thinking it could

    Singer charged up to %75,000 for an SAT or ACT test and he said he could give you any result you wanted (too high might be too suspicious)

    The SAT or ACT wasn’t key to getting in, but it might be necessary to have a reasonably high score to be considered for certain colleges, or maybe it would just make admission less of a question mark.

    In some cases, I read, the student took the test ina test center, but was given an invalid answer sheet, while the proctor submitted the real answer sheet – the one linked to the test – which had been filled out before the test.

    Of course to do this he would also have to have the answer key, and maybe know which questions were harder – this would come from someone at the College Board. Maybe it is possible at least with a practice test.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  170. 169. nk (dbc370) — 3/14/2019 @ 7:46 am

    The original snitch was not Singer, it was a parent being investigated for securities fraud. Singer turned later.

    gthat was in today’s Wall Street Journal,

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tip-the-yale-coach-and-the-wire-how-the-college-admissions-scam-unraveled-11552524237?mod=hp_lead_pos5 (behind a paywall)

    And now it is in more places.

    He lives in California. He wss not indicted – not for his securities fraud, and not for this, and his name is not yet public.

    What he did is arrange to participate in a sting operation on Rudolph (Rudy) Meredith, the Yale women’s soccer coach. A meetion was arranged at a hotel room in Boston, in April 2018. Boston was chosen, I would guess, in order to give the FBI field office there jurisdiction of the case. This is before the official start of Operation Varsity Blues, which only happened in May.

    At this stage, he had already agreed (in January 2018) to pay Singer $1,200,000 but now he had this special meeting wothRudy Meredith in that hotel room in Boston, where Meredith offered to get aplace for his daughter twho didn’t play soccer, for $450.000. Now he was previously supposed to get $400,000. I guess upping the ante was the excuse for the meeting – maybe the California parent pretended he wanted to cut Singer out of the picture, and just pay $450,000 instead of over a million dollars. Meredith agreed to do this without Singer for an additional $50,000. I mean that way this would make sense.

    After that meeting, Meredith began co-operating, and I guess somewhat later Singer, (his phone was tapped in June) although he is named as CW-1 in the indictment.

    The first six persons Singer wore a wire with he managed to tip off but the FBI caught him at that and added obstruction of justice to the charges and after that he was a good boy.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  171. Meredith already had to quit as women’s soccer coach at Yale last November but that didn’t expose the investigation.

    https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/11/17/meredith-resigns-as-head-coach-of-womens-soccer-team/

    “After 24 years at the helm of the women’s soccer program, it is time to explore new possibilities and begin a different chapter in my life,” Meredith told Yale Athletics. “It is the right time to hand the team over to the next Yale women’s soccer coach who can guide the team into the future.”

    https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/11/30/coachs-resignation-gives-chun-first-appointment-choice/

    Meredith’s resignation is the first major coaching change under new Director of Athletics Vicky Chun, who was appointed last spring…..Though Meredith had many highlights over his 24 years as head coach, his resignation was not a total surprise to the team.

    “He didn’t put as much effort into his job as you would hope for from a head coach,” said a former player on the team, who chose to remain anonymous in order to talk freely about Meredith. “He also struggled to motivate the team and connect with players in a way that would inspire us to play for him. We didn’t have practices that gave us the preparation necessary for games, in terms of fitness or scouting other teams or things in between. To put things in perspective, many players felt like they got worse over the four years playing at Yale.”

    Yale University probably knew about the student who never played soccer. If we could get her name, we’d know about the possible securities fraud.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  172. @177. His Rush-to-judgment-‘investigation’ is very old news. Any word on today’s Soyuz launch, Rush?!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  173. Harkin, if she turned back time to circa 1988, why the hlel not?

    urbanleftbehind (3439dc)

  174. nk-
    Regarding water polo, those women play rough. Three girls from my town were on the Olympic team and any one of the three could drown me if so inclined.

    steveg (a9dcab)

  175. I agree. But she’s hanging in there and having fun.

    nk (dbc370)

  176. I agree. But she’s hanging in there and having fun.

    It’s a great sport, and if she’s having fun then really that’s all any of us have a right to ask for. I hope she sticks with it. I tried to take it up in college, and I sure wish I had been exposed to it in my younger days.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  177. If there is anything positive that comes out of this over-sensationalized tempest in a teapot, is that some parents realize that their kids will be kids for only a little while and they should not make their high school years miserable for the sake of another four years of misery at a “good college”.

    nk (dbc370)

  178. That is what extracurricular activities are supposed to be — developing skills while having fun. They aren’t supposed to be careers, especially at a young age, except maybe for the prodigies and many of them burn out when they start young.

    DRJ (15874d)

  179. So what slack did they cut this Tobin fellow.

    Narciso (6f5c67)

  180. It sounds like some students took private tests proctored by a co-conspirator in which the proctor corrected the answers, and that is why they say those students did not know about the scheme. How common is it to be able to take ACT or SAT college tests privately? It isn’t common where I live at all.

    DRJ (15874d)

  181. Looking online, it appears the SAT and the ACT allow students to request testing in a private room as an accommodation for disabilities like ADHD. Proof can be provided by a doctor but the SAT recommends obtaining documentation from the student’s school, so that may be why there seems to be interest in some elite California prep schools.

    DRJ (15874d)

  182. A question: How many students in this story will end up graduating from (any) college vs how many will end up getting their own reality shows? I fear there will be more of the latter than the former.

    DRJ (15874d)

  183. 175. 179. 180.

    narciso @ 179 and 180

    some details here, sammeh:

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/morrie-tobin-college-admissions-scam

    he was yale ’84

    https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2018/lr24361.htm

    yes. I saw his name mentioned in the New Yrk Post today. It attributed the information to the Wall Street Journal.

    Tobin;s name, the fact that he had pled guilty, and what he was being investigated for was not in the paprr yesterday. The story I linked to was written by filed By Melissa Korn, Zusha Elinson, Sadie Gurman and Jennifer Levitz anf filed on March 13, 2019 at 8:43 p.m. ET and published in the paer on March 14, in the middle of the front page, beneath the fold, with the headline: ‘Tipster Helped Feds Crack Sprawling College Fraud Case.’

    The story with futher details:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-yale-dad-who-set-off-the-college-admissions-scandal-11552588402?mod=hp_lead_pos5

    …was written by By Jennifer Levitz and Melissa Korn with Jim Oberman contributing to the article. was filed, or updated on March 14, 2019 at 4:32 p.m. ET and only appears today, Friday, March 15, 2019, with the headline: ‘College-Scam Tipster Faced Fraud Probe.’

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  184. 191. DRJ (15874d) — 3/15/2019 @ 12:02 am

    How many students in this story will end up graduating from (any) college vs how many will end up getting their own reality shows? I fear there will be more of the latter than the former.

    A lot of these students are not going to be idetified at all, although they may have to watch their career and strive not to need an FBI investigation or clearance. Or maybe they could be subject to blackmail.

    William (or Rick) Singer said in one eavesdropped conversation cited by the prosecutors that he had gotten 761 students in through his “side door”

    https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/03/13/dozens-indicted-alleged-massive-case-admissions-fraud

    But only 33 parents were acccused. So that leaves maybe 15 times as many students unidentified as were identified. (In soem cases both parents wee indicted but in some cases more than one child used the beneficiary) Some of them may have graduated from college by now since this is said to have been going on since 2011.

    The parents were not actually indicted by the way – the proceedimngs against the parents were started with a criminal complaint. (the FBI didn’t verify the parent’s locations before moving to arrest them – Lori Loughlin was in Vancouver, Canada and returned to the United States the next day. She also has kept her passport for now, because she’s working on some project there in Canada. Her daughter, Olivia Jade Gianulli, is a professional Instagram anmd YouTube blogger, and might have gotten in by promising to blog about #USC. USC actually was promoting blogging about it. Instead she blogged about #SC (Sephora Collection) and now lost the contract.

    The WSJ estimates she was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in product placement fees (or payola maybe you could call it.)

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  185. narciso @188:

    188.So what slack did they cut this Tobin fellow

    It’s unclear at this point. He pled guilty or agreed to a plea deal in November (is there a difference?)

    https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/operation-varsity-blues-scam-tipster-college-admissions-808418

    …and is scheduled to be sentenced in June (the same month, by the way, that William (better known as Rick) Singer is scheduled to be sentenced.

    The government is also recommending that he forfeit $4 million and I don’t know how that fits into what he did. It was a “pump-and-dump” stock promotion thing. And they are also asking for 36 months of supervised release.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  186. Shouldn’t the $4 million go to the people he and his associates swindled??

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  187. Some of tyhe chilldren knew about parts of teh scheme atleast. Like there was one girl who was trying to get admitted to USC,.. Shed bene rejected. She wrote that she was taking courses in other colleges/

    However, she got an F in an online art history course. In a phone conversation with her father on the line also she asked what were going to do about it? Not to worry, said Singer he already had an employee taking the course in her name and she was almost done wiith it. (apparently that had on;y been discussed with the father so far)

    Could she also take a biology course?. they asked.(I guess not, because she was maybe not so good at that)

    The gir managed to get in.

    There was a case where a guidance counselor was curious asm to why a student was being recruited for water polo when the school had no water polo tean. An official at USC wrote him that she was playing water polo somewhere else in Los Angeles. She named the place.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  188. Here is an article on the students who did not know about the scheme. I agree some might not have known the scope of the fraud but I suspect all had clues something was going on because the only way to take a private test was with a documented accommodation. They had to have that established either by doctors and/or their schools. Maybe all these students have had special ed designations for most of their lives but this sounds like something created in high school during the testing and application process.

    DRJ (15874d)

  189. We’re getting this in dribs and drabs. The story of one parent who consulted Singer for legitimate admissions advice and ran away when Singer suggested the illegal scheme gots me to thinking. We know that the crimes the FBI mostly solves are the ones it commits. I’m curious how many of the indicteds were inveigled into this by Singer while he was wearing a wire for the FBI after he got caught and agreed to cooperate.

    nk (dbc370)

  190. Maybe. That would mean they caught Singer at least one and probably two years ago.

    DRJ (15874d)

  191. But your link said they learned about this last Spring while investigating a securities fraud case. For students to be enrolled in colleges now, they would have already been consulting the application consultants last spring.

    DRJ (15874d)

  192. There is also a claim that Singer used affirmative action to get admissions. They could use genealogy to look into family history for anyone who might be a minority, and that should be legal. Maybe that is how this started but evolved into using athletics if AA didn’t get the best results anymore.

    DRJ (15874d)

  193. @DRJ 172. 173. 174 ff

    I read in the New York Times Style section something that could be the same case as the student who took the SAT at home. It was about “snowplow” parents (not quite as invol;ved as “helicopter parents”

    It said that a mother had pretended to proctor a test whle the actual test was taken by an imposter.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/style/snowplow-parenting-scandal.html?login=email&auth=login-email

    Another, the charges said, paid someone to take the ACT for her son — and then pretended to proctor it for him herself, at home, so he would think he was the test-taker.

    This was Jane Buckingham:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/style/jane-buckingham-college-fraud.html?module=inline

    According to the complaint filed by federal investigators, Ms. Buckingham agreed to pay a bribe of $50,000 to a phony foundation in order to have someone else take the ACT college-entrance exam on behalf of her son Jack, earning him a 35 out of 36 points….

    …On Wednesday, Jack Buckingham released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying: “I am upset that I was unknowingly involved in a large scheme that helps give kids who may not work as hard as others an advantage over those who truly deserve those spots.” Mr. Buckingham said that he hopes that “this might help finally cut down on money and wealth being such a heavy factor in college admissions.” According to the complaint, Ms. Buckingham wanted to administer a copy of the test to Jack so that he would believe that he had taken it.

    She is dovorced from his father, who knew nothing about this.

    Jack Buckingham’s statement to the Hollywood Reporter doesn’t seem to say he took the test at home. so maybe that said said somewhere else. he said he was advised not to say anything (almost none of the accused or their lawyers or any family members are saying anything, but he said he will say this;

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/la-marketing-execs-influencer-daughter-breaks-silence-college-cheating-scam-1194678

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  194. The tennnis coach of Georgetown got in trouble in December 2017, but the case see3ms to have been started by Morrie Tobin.

    Cirrection: I wrote @175:

    At this stage, he had already agreed (in January 2018) to pay Singer $1,200,000 but now he had this special meeting wothRudy Meredith in that hotel room in Boston, where Meredith offered to get a place for his daughter twho didn’t play soccer, for $450.000. Now he was previously supposed to get $400,000. I guess upping the ante was the excuse for the meeting – maybe the California parent pretended he wanted to cut Singer out of the picture, and just pay $450,000 instead of over a million dollars. Meredith agreed to do this without Singer for an additional $50,000. I mean that way this would make sense.

    No.

    It sounds like there were two different gitrsls whom Rudy Meredith tried to get into Yale as soccer players (maybe more earlier – for some years back already there were already members of the girls’ soccer team who didn’t sem to be up to the caliber of the others.

    The $400,000 out of $1,200,000 sounds like it was for another girl. The $450,000 paid by Morrie ZTobon direct to Merdith personally looks like it was a sting operation. He gave $2,000 to Meredith in aBoston hotel room in April 2018, and told him more would be coming from a bank account. Maybe $6,000 was sent some days later. The FBI controlled that account.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  195. nk,

    Singer does seem to be escaping the shame and scrutiny, but he is the heart of this scandal. It seems to me that the students and families will suffer enough from the exposure, expense and dealing with criminal charges. IMO Singer and his helpers are the ones who should do jail time.

    DRJ (15874d)

  196. I agree, DRJ. No parent should be sentenced to more than 1/50th of any sentence Singer receives.

    nk (dbc370)

  197. 1. What’s the crime?
    2. Why was the FBI involved?
    3. No athlete gets signed without the admissions office approval…
    4. Were any scholarships granted?
    5. And Finally, is this any different in large donations to school generating admission?

    It’s not that much different than Obama’s citizenship for cash plan….

    jason stewart (bb1fc8)


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