Full Coverage: The college admissions scheme
Federal prosecutors in 2019 accused top CEOs, two Hollywood actresses and other parents of taking part in an audacious scheme to get their children into elite universities through fraud, bribes and lies. Of the parents named in the initial FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, more than half were accused of conspiring to bribe their way into USC. As of February, 2021, 30 parents had pleaded guilty and nine pleaded not guilty.
There are 224 stories.
In “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal,” director Chris Smith uses a documentary/dramatic hybrid to examine the sting that netted more than 50 indictments.
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William McGlashan Jr., a former TPG executive charged with resorting to illegal means to raise his son’s chances of admission to elite colleges, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of aiding and abetting wire and honest services fraud.
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Martin Fox, a Texas youth sports coach who paid off university coaches and a test proctor in a cash-for-admissions scheme that defrauded some of the country’s most elite schools, was sentenced to three months in prison.
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For fixing their daughters’ admission to USC, Lori Loughlin and J. Mossimo Giannulli were sentenced to two months and five months, respectively, in prison.
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In a deal with the government, Mikaela Sanford admitted that she helped fabricate profiles that depicted the children of Rick Singer’s wealthy clients as decorated athletes.
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Manuel Henriquez, who was accused of rigging his daughters’ exams and bribing a Georgetown tennis coach, is sentenced to six months in prison.
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Karen Littlefair of Newport Beach admits paying $9,000 to have someone take her son’s online courses at Georgetown and gets five weeks in prison.
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David Sidoo, a venture capitalist and former football player, paid $200,000 to fix his sons’ college entrance exams. He was sentenced Wednesday.
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Diane Blake and Todd Blake will plead guilty before a judge at a future date, the U.S. attorney’s office says. The California couple had initially pleaded not guilty.
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Lori Loughlin will plead guilty for her role in the college admissions scandal. She faces 2 months in prison.
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A federal judge overseeing the college admissions case on Friday declined to dismiss charges against Lori Loughlin and her co-defendants.
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Rick Singer told prosecutors that while he previously didn’t believe he was committing bribery, he now sees his scam was an illegal quid pro quo.
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Jorge Salcedo, an ex-UCLA soccer coach charged in the admission of two students for bribes, will plead guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering.
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A judge wrote Friday that Rick Singer’s notes raise “serious and disturbing” questions about the investigation into his college admissions scam.
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A memo released in the college admissions case details a meeting between fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and a counselor who raised concerns over his daughter’s rowing qualifications.
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A former admissions official at USC will plead guilty to helping graduate students from China gain acceptance to the school by submitting doctored transcripts and fraudulent recommendation letters.
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A Bay Area mother who conspired to fix her daughters’ test scores and buy a coach’s endorsement, is sentenced to seven months in prison in the college admissions scandal.
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Lori Loughlin and co-defendants in the college admissions scandal ask to have the fraud, bribery and money laundering charges against them dismissed.
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Two men imprisoned for their roles in the college admissions scandal asked a judge to release them from custody early, citing the coronavirus.
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David Sidoo, a Canadian businessman and former football player charged with paying $200,000 to rig his sons’ exams, will plead guilty.
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Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of Pimco, plans to appeal his nine-month prison sentence in light of newly-disclosed notes taken by the scam’s ringleader, William “Rick” Singer.
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A judge on Tuesday ordered USC to turn over sensitive internal documents to Robert Zangrillo, a Miami investor charged with securing his daughter’s admission to the school through fraud and bribery.
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Notes by William “Rick” Singer become an issue as an Oct. 5 trial date is set for Lori Loughlin and other parents accused of defrauding USC.
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Michelle Janavs, heiress to a frozen foods fortune, was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison in the college admissions scandal.
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Douglas Hodge, once the leader of an international bond manager and now an admitted felon, was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday for paying bribes to get four of his children into USC and Georgetown as fake athletic recruits.
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College admissions scandal prosecutors recommend that a judge sentence four parents who have pleaded guilty to prison terms ranging from 18 to 26 months.
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Prosecutors and lawyers for Xiaoning Sui, a Chinese mother detained in Madrid on charges of bribing her son’s way into UCLA, have proposed she spend no additional time in prison.
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In November 2018, William “Rick” Singer picked up the phone in a government building in Boston and dialed a Los Angeles number. “Lori, it’s Rick Singer. How are you?”
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Prosecutors disclosed emails on Wednesday showing Donna Heinel was tasked with probing the very fraud she allegedly perpetrated at USC.
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Three of USC’s most senior athletic department officials, including Steve Lopes, the CFO and COO, will not continue in their roles.
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Lawyers for parents charged in the case are seeking documents from USC that they believe will show the role donations play in admissions decisions.
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New phone transcripts in the college admissions case provide a detailed look at how the scheme’s admitted mastermind, William “Rick” Singer, pitched his services to potential clients.
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Attorneys for William McGlashan Jr., charged in the college admissions scandal, say prosecutors are withholding evidence that could help exonerate him.
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Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli’s legal team want access to FBI documents they say would show the couple thought their donations were legitimate.
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Igor Dvorskiy acknowledged role in college admissions scandal, saying he let ‘Rick’ Singer run a test-fixing scam out of his West Hollywood school.
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Parents who pleaded not guilty faced additional charges, in order to apply pressure to change their plea.
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Jeffrey Bizzack watched in March as 33 parents were arrested and charged with crimes he knew he had committed. He quit his job, hired lawyers and told the government he wanted to turn himself in.
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Jane Buckingham wrote “The Modern Girl’s Guide to Motherhood” in 2006. A decade later, she would conspire to fix her son’s ACT exams.
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Eleven parents, including Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, now face an added bribery charge in the college admissions case.
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College admissions scandal: Lori Loughlin faces choice as other parents plead guilty and her daughters exit USC
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Douglas Hodge reversed course after prosecutors warned parents who had maintained their innocence that they could face a charge of federal program bribery.
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Robert Flaxman, a California real estate developer, was sentenced to a month in prison for rigging his daughter’s test scores
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Federal prosecutors are ratcheting up pressure on parents who have maintained their innocence in the college admissions scandal with a warning they intend to file additional criminal charges as early as next week.
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Peter Jan Sartorio, a 54-year-old food entrepreneur from the Bay Area, was the latest parent in the college admissions scandal case to be sentenced.
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Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of investment giant Pimco, is expected to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors in Boston said Thursday.
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Marjorie Klapper of Menlo Park, Calif., admitted she paid $15,000 to William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach college admissions consultant.
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Felicity Huffman went to a prison in Northern California where she will spend two weeks for conspiring to rig her daughter’s college entrance exams.
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Agustin Huneeus Jr., a California winemaker, was sentenced to prison for paying to rig his daughter’s school entrance exams and trying to sneak her into USC as a bogus athlete.
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The head of a West Hollywood prep school flips and is likely to back up accusations of a criminal conspiracy in the college admissions scandal.
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In a bid to evade prison, L.A. business exec Stephen Semprevivo claimed he was a victim of William “Rick” Singer’s far-reaching scheme. It didn’t work.
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Prosecutors in the admissions scandal cases shifted arguments, telling a judge that parents’ behavior — not how much they paid — should determine prison time.
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Xiaoning Sui was arrested by Spanish authorities Monday night and charged with paying William “Rick” Singer to ensure her son was admitted to UCLA.
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“I have always been prepared to accept whatever punishment Judge Talwani imposed. I broke the law,” Huffman said in a statement after being sentenced to 14 days in jail.
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The ruling is a narrow victory for prosecutors who wanted a heavier penalty but argued that some amount time behind bars for Huffman and other parents can be “the only leveler” against their money and influence.
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An internal investigation at UCLA uncovered key elements of William “Rick” Singer’s college admissions scheme in 2014.
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A judge in Boston prepares to sentence parents in the college admissions cheating scandal.
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Until now, Felicity Huffman has said virtually nothing of why she paid a college admissions consultant $15,000 to rig her daughter’s SAT score.
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Prosecutors want Felicity Huffman to get a one-month prison sentence for her role in the college admissions case, calling her dealings with mastermind William “Rick” Singer “deliberate and manifestly criminal.”
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College admissions scandal: USC officials discussed how much parents would donate when consider admissions of children, records show
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Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, can continue using a law firm that recently represented USC, a judge rules.
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USC is asking a judge to quash a subpoena from a father accused of getting his daughter into the school through fraud and bribery.
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College admissions scandal: A $100,000 bribe and help from Rick Singer got him a soccer scholarship to UCLA. But he didn’t play.
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Years before William “Rick” Singer’s college admissions scandal was uncovered, FBI agents in South Florida nearly discovered his scam.
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As actress Felicity Huffman awaits sentencing on a charge of fraud conspiracy, her colleagues on Netflix’s “Otherhood” movie speak out on her behalf.
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Shortly after federal authorities took down a national college admissions scam in March, officials at USC launched their own investigation with emails to dozens of students.
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A Southern California father has admitted to paying $250,000 to get his son into USC as a bogus volleyball player and will plead guilty to fraud conspiracy, his attorney and prosecutors say, as the list of wealthy and powerful parents charged in a federal investigation into college admissions fraud grew for the first time Friday since William “Rick” Singer’s decadelong scheme was uncovered in March.
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An accountant who laundered bribes and a collegiate soccer coach who pocketed them pleaded guilty in Boston on Thursday to racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging they played key roles in a scheme that defrauded some of the country’s most prestigious universities.
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Five years before he would be charged with fraud conspiracy, with his name included in a parade of actresses, financiers and executives accused of ripping off some of the country’s top colleges, Toby MacFarlane was nearly undone by an email.
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The wealthy couple willing to pay him millions lived in Beijing, but William “Rick” Singer needed only to go to Pasadena to find them.
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The fate of John Vandemoer, the former sailing coach at Stanford University who participated in the college admissions scandal, will take one of several very different turns Wednesday when he is sentenced in a Boston courtroom.
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The college admissions scandal has shaken the country’s trust in higher education and corroborated a “national fear” that the process can be rigged to favor the rich, prosecutors wrote in arguing why a coach mired in the scandal should go to prison.
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USC told lawyers for actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, J.
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Federal investigators are scrutinizing whether Pat Haden, the former USC athletic director, was involved in the college admissions bribery and cheating scheme carried out by William “Rick” Singer, according to a source with knowledge of the case.
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A former USC soccer coach will plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation that implicated him in a college admissions scheme that sneaked the children of wealthy families into top universities by using fake athletic credentials and bribes, according to court documents filed Monday.
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Lori Loughlin has vowed to fight charges in the college admissions scandal.
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Steven Masera, the California accountant accused of handling the books for a test-fixing and bribery scheme that defrauded some of the country’s top universities, will plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy and has agreed to cooperate with investigators, according to court documents unsealed Friday.
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William “Rick” Singer was well into orchestrating an elaborate bribery and cheating scheme to slip his clients’ children into elite colleges when he sat down for a deposition in Washington, D.C., in 2016.
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As Marcia and Gregory Abbott’s daughter prepared to take her SAT subject tests last August, she asked if the tall blond man who was “so sweet” when proctoring an earlier exam in West Hollywood would be there again.
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Six months ago, federal agents watched Gordon Caplan and his daughter walk into a West Hollywood school where a 36-year-old man would fix the girl’s college entrance exam.
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More than a year before the college admissions scandal investigation began, Georgetown University “discovered irregularities” in the athletic credentials of two tennis recruits, initiated a secret investigation and eventually forced coach Gordon Ernst to resign, court records show.
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Some figures in the college admissions scandal have vowed to fight federal charges, saying they did nothing wrong.
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Laura Janke, a former USC soccer coach who is cooperating with a federal investigation into college admissions fraud, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Boston to a racketeering conspiracy charge.
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As she pleaded guilty for her role in the college admissions scandal Monday, a tearful Felicity Huffman tried to explain what motivated her.
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Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty in a Boston courtroom Monday to a fraud conspiracy charge for her role in a brazen test-fixing and bribery scheme that has sent the actress’ reputation and career prospects tumbling.
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Felicity Huffman formally pleaded guilty Monday to her role in the college admissions scandal.
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Actress Lori Loughlin has lost acting gigs and been the subject of public wrath after being charged in the college admissions scandal.
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A Los Angeles executive who paid $400,000 to secure his son’s spot at Georgetown as a tennis recruit pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud charges as part of a sweeping college admissions scandal that has ensnared dozens of wealthy parents and sent shock waves through some of the country’s most elite educational institutions.
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A former Stanford University student whose parents paid $6.5 million to secure her admission to the prestigious school has not been charged with a crime in the college admissions scandal.
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Federal prosecutors have sent a letter to a former Stanford student whose parents paid $6.5 million to the mastermind of the college admissions scheme informing her she is a possible target of their investigation, a person familiar with the investigation said.
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The mother of a former Stanford student acknowledged Thursday that she paid $6.5 million to the man at the heart of the college admissions scandal, but said she was tricked into believing the seven-figure sum would go toward scholarships, university salaries and programs for needy students.
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Yusi Zhao’s mother says she thought she was helping needy students at Stanford — not buying her daughter’s admission — when she paid $6.5 million into a foundation controlled by college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer.
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The family of a Chinese student admitted to Stanford paid $6.5 million to the man at the heart of the college admissions scandal, whom they met through a Morgan Stanley financial advisor, sources familiar with the case told The Times.
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A Northern California couple who secured their daughters’ spots at UCLA and USC with bribes and rigged tests pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud and money laundering offenses, the first parents to admit their guilt before a judge in an investigation that has sent shivers through circles of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Hollywood and some of the country’s most elite universities.
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William “Rick” Singer stepped into a conference room at a Newport Beach Marriott one morning last January to hear how his master plan was progressing.
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Last month, the scheme was laid bare: USC, and at least half a dozen top universities, had been breached by a multiyear conspiracy that used bribes, rigged tests and at least a few Photoshopped applications to slip the children of wealthy and influential families past admissions processes that grow more selective every year.
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From the beginning, USC has played a central role in the college admissions scandal.
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FBI agents executed warrants last month to seize up to $2.7 million from bank accounts controlled by six people charged in the college admissions scandal, including former USC and UCLA employees, according to documents unsealed in U.S.
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Two more people will plead guilty in the college admissions scandal, including a former USC soccer coach who has agreed to cooperate with the government’s widening investigation, federal authorities said Tuesday.
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When actress Felicity Huffman announced she would plead guilty to charges related to the college admissions scandal, she expressed unwavering remorse for her actions.
Videos of Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman become legal battleground in college admissions scandal
Videos of Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman become legal battleground in college admissions scandal
Video footage of Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin has become part of a legal battle in the college admissions scandal, with prosecutors asking a judge to restrict access to evidence they will begin turning over to defense attorneys.
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Prosecutors in the college admissions scandal are in Los Angeles this week as they continue to widen their investigation in the far-reaching scam.
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Federal prosecutors from Boston have interviewed people in Los Angeles this week, asking about additional students whose parents have not been charged in the college admissions scandal, people familiar with the matter told The Times.
UCLA needs 103 days to turn over emails between soccer coaches and those indicted in college scandal
UCLA needs 103 days to turn over emails between soccer coaches and those indicted in college scandal
Turning over all of the emails exchanged between three UCLA coaches and five people indicted by federal prosecutors for conspiring to defraud top-ranked universities will take 103 days, UCLA record-keepers say.
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To the editor: The admissions scandals at USC and UCLA are different.
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Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer J.
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A Palo Alto couple accused of paying $25,000 to rig their son’s college entrance exam asked a federal judge this week to dismiss the indictment against them, claiming there was no conspiracy among the parents entangled in the college admissions scandal.
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The University of Southern California has, to its shame, been at the center of the scandal that led last month to the arrest of more than a dozen people and forced a soul-searching reexamination of long-standing rules and traditions regarding college admissions.
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The responses were curious then. They sound downright suspicious now.
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Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer J.
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In Boston to face charges in the college admissions scandal two weeks ago, actress Lori Loughlin waved at fans, shook the hands of prosecutors and signed autographs.
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Like thousands of students each year, the high school senior hoped to secure a coveted spot in the UCLA freshman class.
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To his clientele of financiers, vintners, heiresses and actresses, William “Rick” Singer sold guarantees.
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Actress Lori Loughlin and 15 other parents implicated in the college admissions scandal have been indicted on charges of money laundering and fraud conspiracy, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
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In announcing that she would plead guilty in the college admissions scandal, Felicity Huffman said she “will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.”
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Prosecutors moved the college admissions scandal into a new chapter Monday, announcing that actress Felicity Huffman and more than a dozen other wealthy parents charged with participating in the scam have agreed to plead guilty.
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Stanford University has kicked out a student whose application allegedly contained false information as fallout continues from the sweeping college admissions cheating scandal that has ensnared top universities across the country.
Some wealthy parents cut deals, others fight on in college admissions scandal. A look at what’s next
Some wealthy parents cut deals, others fight on in college admissions scandal. A look at what’s next
In a busy week in the college admissions scandal, some accused parents have decided to cooperate with prosecutors.
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A high-profile attorney who was charged in the college admissions scandal said Friday he will plead guilty and defended his teenage daughter in a public statement, saying she was unaware of the scheme and “has been hurt the most by it.”
