SOME WEALTHY PARENTS THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW

…William Singer, college scheme’s chief architect

Parents paid millions to get their children into prestigious colleges and universities.

I actually over-heard a bizarre comment stand in line to be seated at a restaurant this week.  The comment was in regards to the 50 people charged with being involved in a college bribery scheme that enabled wealthy students to attend prestigious colleges and universities.  The comment was that, “It looked like a bunch of wealthy parents had decided to follow Donald Trump’s approach to operating above the law.”  The person standing next to the individual responded with, “Yeah, perhaps they learned what to do by attending the president’s [bogus] Trump University, before it was forced to close.”

As we watch the sentencing of Paul Manafort for his decades of heinous money-making crimes, we also learn that the man, the college scheme’s chief architect, William Singer, had just pleaded guilty in federal court.  Officials have described Singer as a well-connected college admissions adviser that had disguised the bribery scheme as a charity.  By doing this, the parents were enabled to not only get their child in the college of their choice, they could also deduct the bribes from their taxes.

Court papers charge that in one secretly recorded conversation, Gordon Caplan, another defendant, asked Singer: “If somebody catches this, what happens?”

“The only one who can catch it is if you guys tell somebody,” Singer replied.

“I’m not going to tell anybody,” Caplan said, and the two men laughed, according to the recording.

Caplan, is the co-chairman of the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.  Neither Caplan nor his firm immediately responded to requests for comment.

Two California parents paid Singer in the form of Facebook stock,  2,150 shares worth $251,159 at the time of the bribe in July 2016.  This is also according to court papers. Those parents claimed that payment as a charitable donation.

Early in the investigation, the FBI was able to flip Yale’s former women’s soccer coach, who provided evidence against others, officials said.  Rudolph Meredith pleaded guilty nearly a year ago, after prosecutors gathered evidence that he took a $400,000 bribe to pretend that one prospective student was a soccer recruit.  That was despite the fact that the student in question did not even play competitive soccer. The student’s parents had paid $1.2 million in bribes.

No students were charged in this scheme because prosecutors said their parents were the principal actors.

Court filings released, paint an ugly picture of privileged parents committing crimes to get their children into selective schools, schools that they were otherwise unlikely to accept them.

Among those charged are actresses Felicity Huffman, best known for her role on the television show “Desperate Housewives,” and Lori Loughlin, who appeared on “Full House.” Loughlin was out of the country at this time, but was arrested upon her return to the US.  A representative for Huffman did not return messages seeking comment.  Huffman appeared in federal court in Los Angeles and was released on $250,000 bond.

Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were accused of paying $500,000 in bribes so their two daughters would be designated as recruits for the University of Southern California rowing team, even though they were not part of the team. That helped the pair get into USC, according to the complaint.

Jovan Vavic, the former water polo coach at USC, was charged with taking bribes to pretend students flagged by Singer were recruits for the team. Prosecutors alleged Singer paid private-school tuition payments for Vavic’s children, under the guise of a fabricated scholarship.

USC has said that Vavic had been fired.

“We understand that the government believes that illegal activity was carried out by individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university,” the statement says. “USC is conducting an internal investigation and will take employment actions as appropriate . . . the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.”

Others arrested Tuesday include a private-equity executive in Northern California, a senior lawyer at a major law firm in New York and a public relations executive in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said they took part in a criminal conspiracy to bribe test officials and college sports officials.

In the wake of the charges, universities began firing or placing on leave some of the accused coaches.

Singer was charged with taking about $25 million from 2011 to 2018, paying some of it to college coaches or standardized-testing officials for their help rigging the admissions process and pocketing the rest, according to the criminal complaint.  He allegedly disguised the money using a nonprofit, the Key Worldwide Foundation, which prosecutors described as a slush fund for bribes.

Singer pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy charges for racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice.  He had been cooperating since September. Prosecutors said that a month after he came to the government’s side, Singer alerted several people under investigation about the inquiry, which earned him the obstruction charge.

Other defendants include William McGlashan, a senior executive at a global private-equity firm, TPG Growth, which is a major investor in the ride-hailing service Uber and the music-streaming app Spotify.

A TPG spokesman said that “as a result of the charges of personal misconduct against Bill McGlashan,” he has been placed on “indefinite administrative leave effective immediately.”

According to the criminal charges against McGlashan, he and Singer agreed to trick admissions officials at USC into believing McGlashan’s son was a kicker for a football team.  But his son’s high school didn’t even have a football team. Singer offered to edit an image of the child’s head onto a photo of a football being kicked by another student in an on-line picture.  As they discussed it, McGlashan said the situation was “pretty funny,” court documents say. “The way the world works these days is unbelievable,” said McGlashan.

From President Trump, to all of these wealthy parents, they all apparently think that because of their wealth, they are allowed to be above the law.

Copyright G. Ater 2019