Wealthy Parents Bribe Elite Colleges to Admit Their Children

Literally dozens of people have been charged in an admissions bribery scheme involving elite colleges and wealthy parents who wanted to get their progeny enrolled by any means necessary, including bribes ranging from $200K to $6.5M.

Famous actors, college coaches and university administrators will have to answer to these accusations and more charges seem likely to follow as witnesses are interviewed and suspects questioned. In one case, parents paid via a non-profit group to bribe admins to allow a third party to take tests on behalf of their children. The group, Key Worldwide Foundation, also is alleged to have bribed college coaches and administrators to falsely designate the applying students as athletes, even if they were not athletes, in an attempt to give them an advantage.

In the single largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, the parents who participated, more than 32 of them, were charged with various counts of mail fraud. Prosecutors are also reported to be considering charging the students as well, though no students have yet been charged. Among the colleges implicated in the scandal are Yale University, Stanford University and UT Austin. Celebrity parents involved include Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin – the full list of those charged is available here.