College Admissions Cheating Scandal: Who’s to Blame? Legal Blog By Attorney Stacy Slotnick

College Admissions Cheating Scandal: Who’s to Blame?

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

 

College Admissions Cheating Scandal: New Claims

Blame the FBI? Not a great philosophy or strategy, IMO. 

Bribes, lies, and cheating mark the Varsity Blues scandal that has landed famous actresses, coaches, heiresses, and parents in prison.

Sean M. Berkowitz, actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli’s lawyer, alleges there was evidence Rick Singer, the ringleader behind Varsity Blues a.k.a. the college admissions scandal, was directed to lie about their involvement. Under instructions by the FBI, Berkowitz says, Singer withheld crucial information from the couple.

Lori Loughlin and Giannulli’s attorney filed a motion to have their trial in the college admissions scandal postponed after evidence he alleges show personal notes from Singer, a college-prep advisor, point to FBI investigators directing him to lie and say that he made everyone involved with the scam aware their payments were bribery rather than legitimate donations to schools.

The couple’s attorney accused prosecutors of withholding evidence that could help prove that they weren’t aware the money they were paying to Singer to get their daughters, Isabella and Olivia Jade Giannulli, admitted to USC went to personal bribes. 

“Singer’s notes indicate that FBI agents yelled at him and instructed him to lie by saying that he told his clients who participated in the alleged ‘side door’ scheme that their payments were bribes, rather than legitimate donations that went to the schools,” the court documents read. “They further note the Government’s desire to ‘nail’ one of the defendants ‘at all costs.’”  

According to defense filings, Singer wrote that the FBI told him to lie to his clients by characterizing all of their payments as bribes. Their attorney called the notes were “exculpatory” evidence and called for the court’s “urgent intervention.”

The former Hallmark Channel actress and Mossimo Giannulli have claimed that their $500,000 worth of payments to Singer were legitimate “donations.”  Prosecutors disagree, claiming that labeling it as such does not mean it was not a bribe and that they created a fake resume for YouTuber Olivia Jade.  Prosecutors also claim Singer’s notes were withheld due to “attorney-client privilege.” 

Lori Loughlin, Giannulli and six other defendants are expected to face a jury for the first time on October 5 over charges stemming from the college admissions scandal that accused dozens of wealthy parents of bribing their kids’ ways into top universities. 

 

College Admissions Cheating Scandal: The Scheme 

More than 50 people have been charged with participating in the college admissions scandal, a scheme involving bribery, money laundering, and document fabrication to unfairly get students admitted to elite colleges. This is the largest college-admissions cheating scandal in U.S. history.

The scheme included bribing college athletic coaches to recruit students regardless of their athletic ability, as well as cheating on entrance exams. Test scores were inflated, photographs were doctored, and essays were falsified. Parents allegedly paid $200,000 and up to $6.5 million to have their children admitted to various colleges and universities, including Yale, USC, Stanford, and Georgetown.  

Operation Varsity Blues has highlighted a bevy of celebrities, tycoons, colleges, and coaches whose consciences took a vacay. In March 2019, college-admissions counsellor Rick Singer pleaded guilty in a federal court in Boston to fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and obstruction of justice in a case known as Operation Varsity Blues. 

Singer’s clients had paid him more than $25 million to help their children enter elite colleges with bogus credentials. He bribed college coaches and athletic officials to misrepresent students as recruited athletes, and he paid proctors at testing sites to improve their scores on the SAT or ACT by secretly correcting wrong answers.  

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli allegedly paid $500,000 to admissions consultant Singer. After Singer was paid, Olivia Jade and Isabella were accepted as recruits to the crew team at USC. In addition to charges of money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, the Fuller House star and her hubby were each handed a federal charge; one count of conspiracy for committing federal programs bribery. 

 

College Admissions Cheating Scandal: Hot Pockets Heiress Sentenced to Prison 

An heir to the Hot Pockets fortune was sentenced to 5 months in prison last week for trying to cheat and bribe her daughters’ way into school as part of the college admissions scam.

Michelle Janavs, whose father and uncle invented the microwaveable Hot Pockets – ironically used by droves of college students – apologized in court for abandoning her moral compass and hurting her family and friends. “I am so very sorry that I tried to create an unfair advantage for my children,” she said.

The judge told Michelle Janavs that prison time was needed to deter others who might have the gall to use their wealth to break the law and dismissed her argument that her actions were motivated by a love for her children.

 

College Admissions Cheating Scandal: Blame Game 

There are cries and clamors for transparency about the role money, power, and privilege play in determining who gets into elite schools. 

Who is most culpable? Are the parents to blame? Are the teens themselves to blame? Did the students who gained admission know of the bribery? Are the elite universities to blame? Will college admissions policies change post-scandal? The exclusive colleges involved have portrayed themselves as helpless victims. To what extent are they right or wrong? Is a donation the same thing as bribery? As alleged by Loughlin and Giannulli, do you think the government withheld information found in Singer’s notes and did the FBI really direct Singer to lie to his clients in order to incriminate them?

Should Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli have taken a plea deal? Do the sentences already dispensed by the courts seem fair? Does the punishment fit the crime? Actress Felicity Huffman, who co-starred in Desperate Housewives, served 11 of a 14-day sentence in prison as a result of her guilty plea.

I invite you to make your voice heard in the comments section. Grab your gavel and join the conversation! 

 

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