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Here's How the F.B.I. Says Parents Cheated to Get Their Kids Into Elite Colleges

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Liberal Democrats, too lazy and stupid to compete 
scholastically.  This is the result of the present day inferior 
California school system, once the envy of the entire free 
world, after 40 years of Democrat control and parasitic 
socialist union infestation.

TAGS: Cheat Lie Bribe Obama Ignorant Liberal Dumb Crime College 
High School Sports USC Coach ACT Democrat LA Times, Washington 
Post, NY Times Elite Hollywood TV Media Twitter youTube Scumbags 
Kiss Your Job Goodbye

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The scheme was as brazen as it was elaborate: Dozens of wealthy 
parents, according to court documents filed Tuesday, paid 
millions of dollars in bribes to secure the admission of their 
children into elite universities.

Test scores were inflated, essays were falsified and photographs 
were doctored, all in an illicit effort to gain entry to schools 
such as Yale, the University of Southern California and 
Georgetown.

“We help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into 
school,” said William Singer, the founder of The Edge College & 
Career Network, in a phone call with a parent he was helping to 
cheat, according to the charging documents. “There is a front 
door which means you get in on your own. The back door is 
through institutional advancement, which is 10 times as much 
money. And I’ve created this side door in.”

Here is how Mr. Singer helped dozens of parents, including high-
profile Hollywood actors and wealthy business leaders, get their 
children into top schools, according to the charging documents.

Parents claimed their children had learning disabilities.
Mr. Singer would instruct parents to seek special circumstances 
for their children to take the SAT or ACT, the required 
standardized tests for acceptance to four-year universities.

Parents would use medical documentation to claim their children 
had a learning disability. The students would then be given a 
chance to take the tests in a room with only a proctor, and 
sometimes over two days. Then they would sign up to take the 
exams at either a public high school in Houston or a private 
college prep school in West Hollywood, two locations that Mr. 
Singer said he “controlled.”

Mr. Singer would tell clients to come up with a reason they 
would be in Houston or Hollywood, such as for a bar mitzvah or a 
wedding.

Stand-ins were paid to cheat on standardized tests.
Parents paid between $15,000 and $75,000 to Mr. Singer’s company 
so their children could be helped in one of three ways: Someone 
else would take the SAT or ACT exams for the student; a person 
would serve as the proctor and guide the students to the right 
answers; or someone would review and correct the students’ 
answers after the tests were taken.

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In one case, according to the documents, Felicity Huffman, an 
actress, told Mr. Singer her daughter’s high school had its own 
exam proctor in mind.

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In many cases, the students were not aware of the cheating.
Elisabeth Kimmel, the owner of a media company, used Mr. 
Singer’s services twice, first for her daughter in 2012 and then 
for her son in 2017, according to the documents. Her daughter 
attended Georgetown as a purported tennis recruit, and her son 
was accepted to the University of Southern California as a track-
and-field pole-vaulter.

But he was caught off guard during orientation.

Image

Handwriting samples were provided.
According to the documents, Jane Buckingham, who owns a boutique 
marketing firm in Los Angeles, agreed to pay $50,000 to Mr. 
Singer’s company so that someone other than her son would take 
the ACT. But the proctor would need to write the essay portion 
in a handwriting that mimicked her son’s.

University coaches and administrators were paid to secure 
admission.
According to the charging documents, after the exams were scored 
high enough so that the students became competitive applicants, 
the parents paid bribes — structured as donations to the 
university and funneled through The Key — to university coaches, 
who would identify their children as athletic recruits.

Image

[Read the full list of who has been charged here.]

Students’ faces were photoshopped onto athletes’ bodies.
A doctored image of the daughter of Agustin Huneeus Jr., the 
owner of several vineyards in Napa and elsewhere, was edited 
onto a picture of a water polo player, and described as a 
varsity athlete who had earned a team M.V.P., according to the 
charging documents.

Image

Athletic accomplishments were faked
In many cases, bogus achievements were added to college 
applications. In one case, the documents showed, a teenage girl 
who did not play soccer was identified as a star player. In her 
application, she was described as the co-captain of a prominent 
club soccer team in Southern California and was accepted as a 
recruit for the women’s soccer team at Yale.

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Payments were disguised as charitable donations.
After acceptance into their chosen universities, according to 
details outlined in the charging documents, the parents would 
make significant payments to Mr. Singer’s company. The payments 
— often hundreds of thousands of dollars — were disguised as 
donations and would be funneled through the organization to the 
universities, the documents said, allowing the parents to claim 
tax deductions.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/admissions-scandal.html
   

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Here's How the F.B.I. Says Parents Cheated to Get Their Kids Into Elite Colleges "Elizabeth Paige Laurie" <cblasey@paloaltou.edu> - 2019-03-17 10:14 +0100

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