US Celebs Involved in College Bribery and Corruption Scandal

Rich and famous Americans are using their money to buy their children access into first-rate colleges through ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ as the scandal widens.

Well-known actors and actresses have been named in the scandal, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their children into the best colleges in the United States, and you probably know them…

In total 33 parents were caught in the act, including Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman, Full House’s Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.

In one particular incident, a set of parents bribed the head women’s soccer coach at Yale with $400,000 to accept their child as a recruit for the women’s team. The coach knew that the would-be-soccer athlete did not actually play the sport, it was merely a ruse to get her into the school.

Now, this is where we introduce a man named William Rick Singer, so buckle up, because this is where it gets interesting.

William Rick Singer founded a business named The Key, designed to help wealthy, rich Americans get their children into the best colleges and schools throughout the United States, and is at the forefront of this whole operation.

He offers two ways parents can choose from to rig their student’s application process: superimpose faces onto stock athlete images, or arrange someone to take tests for them in their stead.

We don’t need to tell you the option our soccer fraudsters chose. After their daughter was admitted into Yale, her parents reportedly paid William Rick Singer $1.2 million for his efforts; although, we can’t imagine it took too much.

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli were involved in a similar scheme. They paid bribes of $500,000 to the University of Southern California to enable their daughters to become recruits of their crew team, despite never having participated in the sport of rowing.

But the US college system is known for its corruptive tendencies

The children of college alumni, as one could assume, enjoy a superior admissions rate, which is commonly known as legacy preferences. The acceptance rate for alumni offspring is between two and three times higher than the average acceptance rate of many highly-respected institutions.

If the situation were to arise where they were not accepted, they might be advised to take a gap year and enter a year later, which is known by the term ‘Z-listing’. A study carried out by Princeton University revealed that legacy preferences had the same effect as adding 160 SAT points to a pupil’s college cause.

Previously mentioned bribes are often covered up as donations. Parents with more money than sense can donate to a particular college directly and become ‘VIP applicants,’ putting their children in favourable positions come the selection process. It’s even been reported that applicants whose parents made said donations, had the amount given next to their name along with “must be on wait list.”

We have FBI special agent Bonavolonta to thank for Operation Varsity Blues. But the truth is, the large bribes and Singer’s business involvement is the issue at the forefront of a much deeper problem that stems from the root of US college admissions.

Originally published at www.kortext.com by Matthew Maynard