The bureau announced charges against scores of well-to-do people including famous actresses Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”) and Lori Loughlin (“Full House”) over allegations they were involved in an illegal scheme to help their kids get in to top colleges under false pretenses.
As Zero Hedge reported, the suspects are being charged with conspiring to commit mail fraud, among other charges; thus far, 38 people have been arrested.
The site noted further:
Prosecutors are alleging that the individuals charged tried to bribe college entrance exam officials in order to cheat on admissions tests and that some conspired to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as "recruited athletes.” Athletes can sometimes get preferential treatment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that at least some of the institutions named in the suit included Yale University, the University of Southern California (USC), Stanford University and Georgetown University.
According to prosecutors, some of the parents sought to disguise as charitable donations, what amounted to bribery payments, meaning they took the amounts off their taxes.
In total, according to prosecutors, Huffman and Loughlin were involved with other white wealthy liberals in a scheme to pay off a private college-counseling service $25 million. Prosecutors also allege that the scheme involving parents paying administrators who gave admissions tests to artificially inflate their child’s scores “by either having someone else take the test, or correcting the answers before they were submitted,” the WSJ reported.
At least some of the parents have been accused of conspiring to bribe administrators at elite colleges as well as varsity coaches so their children could be recruited as athletes. (Related: White Privilege is a hoax, taught to children in corrupt school systems.)
‘There can be no separate college admission for the wealthy’
According to prosecutors, it appears as though the institutions in question were not involved in the alleged scheme. USC officials said they were cooperating fully with the FBI and the Justice Department to get to the bottom of the scandal, as well as having launched their own internal investigation.
Joseph Bonavolonta, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, where charges were filed following a 10-month probe, said that those involved had established a “culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for students trying to get in to these schools the right way, through hard work, good grades, and community service.”
Dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” the probe also involved the IRS and the Justice Department. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters that the investigation was still in progress and that more parents and coaches may end up facing charges as well.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail added that more than $6 million in bribes were paid out. The paper noted that “[Lori] Loughlin and her husband 'agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team’” — “crew” being the name of the rowing team.
The paper noted that Huffman has two daughters with husband and actor William H. Macy, including Sofia, 18, and 16-year old Georgia. Macy has not yet been named in any indictments. But Loughlin’s designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was named.
The Daily Mail added that William Rick Singer, the founder of Key Worldwide Foundation, has been named as the ringleader behind the scheme. FBI documents claim he received some $25 million from parents to facilitate the fraud since 2011.
“This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth, combined with fraud,” Lelling said. “There can be no separate college admission for wealthy, and I will add there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”
And yet, these “white privileged” liberals thought differently. Imagine that.
Read more about the faltering reputation of Hollywood celebs at CelebrityReputation.com.
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