Feds uncover large-scale college entrance exam cheating plot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lori Laughlin and spouse were particularly stupid considering their daughter already had a likely million dollar a year business as a social influencer. They would have been better off making her see a financial adviser and getting her investing like crazy so when she loses her looks or people stop caring about her, her money is earning money and she can live off investments.

Agree.

In this case, however, she leveraged a new contract related to being a college student influence, hawking dorm gear and so forth. Had she not been in college she would have had to limit herself to makeup, clubs and god knows what else.

Also, Mom said she never had a chance to go to college, and wanted her daughters to have that experience. Perhaps they can experience prison together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lori Laughlin and spouse were particularly stupid considering their daughter already had a likely million dollar a year business as a social influencer. They would have been better off making her see a financial adviser and getting her investing like crazy so when she loses her looks or people stop caring about her, her money is earning money and she can live off investments.

Yep.

Maybe they're clever like a fox. It's all a convoluted plan to get their daughter more viewers on social media!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://slate.com/technology/2006/05/taking-the-sat-untimed.html

That's nearly 13 years old. Nothing more recent?

No because it is a sensitive subject! One would be accused of discrimination. If the numbers were that bad then, imagine how much worse it would be today!

[Anonymous]

There are so many colleges and universities in the US, there are several great ones for each and every kid. Even ones who aren’t smart (like my brother, even he got in somewhere and he just isn’t smart or a good test taker). Why in the world a parent would go to all this trouble and break so many laws for one specific college because their kid couldn’t get into that college just stuns me. All for one school. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

750 families benefited from his services to find "side doors".

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-cheating-mastermind-says-he-helped-nearly-800-families-admissions-n982666

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:750 families benefited from his services to find "side doors".

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-cheating-mastermind-says-he-helped-nearly-800-families-admissions-n982666

Release all the names!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lori Laughlin and spouse were particularly stupid considering their daughter already had a likely million dollar a year business as a social influencer. They would have been better off making her see a financial adviser and getting her investing like crazy so when she loses her looks or people stop caring about her, her money is earning money and she can live off investments.

I doubt social media influencer is a sustainable career. Her influencer career probably will start to decline before her peers graduate from college. Her followers will outgrow or tire of inane posts and there will be younger, hipper, edgier influencers who will replace her before they themselves are replaced.

[Anonymous]

1 million views is about $2,000 USD. Her videos get about half that. She is probably making low six figures with specific endorsements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So basically, had these people not been greedy in giving the money as charitable donations to claim on their taxes, they may never have been caught?

This Singer guy could have just billed them all as a college consultant and no one would have been alerted to this, correct?

I read they first discovered this by seeing all the money going to USC when auditing Singer’s business.

[Anonymous]

Look, if you research far back enough you will find that one or more of the Kennedy clan paid to have someone take their exams for them, money certainly greases the skids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lori Laughlin and spouse were particularly stupid considering their daughter already had a likely million dollar a year business as a social influencer. They would have been better off making her see a financial adviser and getting her investing like crazy so when she loses her looks or people stop caring about her, her money is earning money and she can live off investments.

I doubt social media influencer is a sustainable career. Her influencer career probably will start to decline before her peers graduate from college. Her followers will outgrow or tire of inane posts and there will be younger, hipper, edgier influencers who will replace her before they themselves are replaced.

Doesn't matter. If you invest well you could be living off the dividends, etc for a loooooong time.

I honestly think she could spin this mess and stay popular. She would need to take on a whole new persona-humble and down to earth. Her first video could talk about how she loves her parents so much, but it genuinely hurt they did did this. She could talk about her own self-reflection and how she wants to show integrity in everything she does. She could start a scholarship for underprivileged folks to go to the university and donate some of her youtube proceeds to some real charities.

I also think she needs to drop out and maybe wait a year and if SHE wants college she should try to get in on her own merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lori Laughlin and spouse were particularly stupid considering their daughter already had a likely million dollar a year business as a social influencer. They would have been better off making her see a financial adviser and getting her investing like crazy so when she loses her looks or people stop caring about her, her money is earning money and she can live off investments.

I doubt social media influencer is a sustainable career. Her influencer career probably will start to decline before her peers graduate from college. Her followers will outgrow or tire of inane posts and there will be younger, hipper, edgier influencers who will replace her before they themselves are replaced.

Doesn't matter. If you invest well you could be living off the dividends, etc for a loooooong time.

I honestly think she could spin this mess and stay popular. She would need to take on a whole new persona-humble and down to earth. Her first video could talk about how she loves her parents so much, but it genuinely hurt they did did this. She could talk about her own self-reflection and how she wants to show integrity in everything she does. She could start a scholarship for underprivileged folks to go to the university and donate some of her youtube proceeds to some real charities.

I also think she needs to drop out and maybe wait a year and if SHE wants college she should try to get in on her own merit.

^ from what I've read the people she wants to influence are in college, most of them, so it majorly behooves her to be in college. Makes sense to me. Her influence would wane if it were known she didn't get into the likes of USC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So basically, had these people not been greedy in giving the money as charitable donations to claim on their taxes, they may never have been caught?

This Singer guy could have just billed them all as a college consultant and no one would have been alerted to this, correct?

well, it involved 700 people. so at some point, this was all going to come out anyway. the FBI had wiretaps of conversations irrespective of greedy rich people taking tax deductions for bribes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOOM! Georgetown coach took almost $900k! One kid never played tennis at all.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1142876/download

Between 2012 and 2018, SINGER paid a Georgetown tennis coach bribes, falsely
labeled as "consulting" fees, totaling more than $2.7 million. SINGER typically made the
payments from one of the KWF charitable accounts and sent them to the coach via U.S. Mail,
including in several instances to the coach's residence in Falmouth, Massachusetts. ^
53. In exchange for the bribes, the Georgetown coach designated approximately 12
applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play tennis
competitively, thereby facilitating their admission to the imiversity.

I'm not from around here, so I wonder if someone can, please, enlighten me. Doesn't the coach report to the athletic director, and, most importantly, don't they need to produce results in their sport? If you admit kids who don't even play your game, who's going to compete on behalf of your school?
I can -- sorta -- see how in a team sport you can always claim so and so was injured and was benched/replaced. But for an individual sport, like tennis, in a preppy school like Georgetown? Plus, when you apply as an athlete, don't you have to submit proof of your athletic accomplishments (official tournament results, ratings, etc)?
Baffling. Utterly baffling.

You are assuming the admission folks track the athletes after the athlete has been admitted. There is no system for that....the admission folks are on to the next year and really do not care about last years applicants. The coach/athletic department just flag/marks the application as someone they would like. Many times the bottom part of the team are not on scholarship and paying full price to attend school. This kids help the teams over GPA and graduation rates. Something that is tracked.

Exactly. No one knows who is on the end of the bench in soccer, or tennis, or crew... Coach could keep on the team, or not, with probably zero effect on team success. I'd say it would just be to help GPA but maybe not if they needed a bribe to get into the school.

And also, these kids aren't getting scholarships. After admission, they could just say, "You know, I've changed my mind, I'm going to focus on my studies, so I'm not playing after all." I know kids who legitimately did that with football and lacrosse. They don't get kicked out of school. It's a perfectly plausible scam (as these things go).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aunt Becky and her husband never went to college and seemed naïve about the whole process and desperate.

The interesting thing about Felicity Huffman is she's a different case--she's a WASP, the daughter of a partner at Morgan Stanley, and a Yale legacy.

"Huffman was born in Bedford, New York, into a wealthy family, the daughter of Grace Valle (née Ewing; 1921–2009)[1] and Moore Peters Huffman (1910–1987), a banker and partner at Morgan Stanley.[2][3] Her parents divorced a year after her birth, and she was raised by both of her parents.[4][5] When she was a young teenager, she discovered that her biological father was Roger Tallman Maher, who was a family friend.[4] She has six sisters, Mariah, Betsy, Grace, Isabel, Jessie, Jane (1949–2013),[6] and a brother, Moore Jr. [7][8] Her great-grandfather was Gershom Moore Peters (1843–1919), founder of the Peters Cartridge Company and prominent Baptist minister, author of The Master.[9] Another great-grandfather, Frederick Berthold Ewing, graduated from Yale University and became a prominent St. Louis businessman. Her great-great-grandfather was Joseph Warren King (1814–1885), founder of the King Mills Powder Company"

Where does William H Macy fit into all of this? They’re still married, right?

They're still married. They haven't charged him--yet. The guy claims he met with him as well as huffman but my guess is so far the trail of money, emails, etc. goes back only to her and her accounts--would make sense they keep all their stuff separate for legal and other reasons since they are both high-earning and high-profile.

Or, so far they only have actual evidence (the transcripted phone conversations) of his involvement with the second daughter, who ultimately was not a student benefitting from the scheme. The parents changed their mind on her at the 11th hour.