Feds Break-up Wealthy College Admissions Fraud Ring

[Cheap Shot]

Quote from ATC @ NPR for Lori L's daughter regarding college

"Olivia Jade Giannulli, the daughter of Loughlin and Giannulli, is among the most high profile students now under a cloud of suspicion. Her parents allegedly paid a half million dollars in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California. Olivia Jade posted a video last August, just before she started at USC, that makes it clear she was not going to college for the academics:

"I do want the experience of game days and partying," she says in the video. "I don't really care about school ... as you guys all know."

Giannulli quickly backtracked on her post, calling it "super ignorant and stupid," and insisting that "education is important."

[Ed L]

It seems that the FBI came to her door on Tuesday morning with their guns drawn and arrested Felicity Huffman on Tuesday morning. I am not sure why they had their guns drawn--it's not like they were arresting someone dangerous--like Sean Penn or Mel Gibson.

I am hoping someone with LE experience can fill us in on FBI procedure for arresting Hollywood stars.

[blues]

Most in attendance forget that a degree is simply a 'tool', not a guarantee of employment or improved intelligence. Many have done quite well without 'advanced education', to wit: Bill Gates.

I agree. My wife and I were discussing that very topic last night. (She did not go to college.)

My father, who was one of the most intelligent people I've ever known, didn't either. (Nor my mother for that matter.)

Frankly, I intended to drop out at the end of my sophomore year, (from disgust and disillusionment with the institution), but was sent a letter from the head of a department that summer who coaxed me back.

I believe in the value of education but I am very much an autodidact in that regard.

[TGS]

It seems that the FBI came to her door on Tuesday morning with their guns drawn and arrested Felicity Huffman on Tuesday morning. I am not sure why they had their guns drawn--it's not like they were arresting someone dangerous--like Sean Penn or Mel Gibson.

I am hoping someone with LE experience can fill us in on FBI procedure for arresting Hollywood stars.

I have no idea on this person in particular, but remember there's possibly things we don't know.

Many rich people seeing their life crumble before them can project suicidal/homicidal ideations.

If you serve a warrant, you serve it right.

The recent Stone warrant is an example. In the goal of a good controversial headline, lots of people want to forget that he was projecting homicidal thoughts, including the murder of his own dog. The dude was a fucking nutjob on the edge of murder, and if they hadn't done it right and gotten some guys killed in the process, then all the gun-rag writers in the world would be pissing on their graves because they should've known better.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Ed L]

Lets look at the charges for some of these people. Lori Loughlin and Felicity Hufman are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and honest services mail fraud.

Honest services fraud is an interesting charge that I had never heard of before. I had to look it up and the most pertinent part of the definition is "fraudulent schemes to deprive another of honest services through bribes or kickbacks supplied by a third party who ha[s] not been deceived." My interpretation of this is that by getting their daughters in by illegal means--bribery and fraud--they are depriving a legitimate applicant who would have otherwise been accepted of their place in the college.

In fact, the USC, Yale,and several other elite colleges are being sued by two Stanford University students who claim they were denied a fair opportunity for admission and have had their degrees devalued due to the college cheating scheme: https://www.foxnews.com/us/usc-yale-...scandal-report. It is a class action suit, so there is a possibility that more people will join in. I have no idea how this is going to play out in court, but it should be interesting. Luckily, those schools have enormous endowments to pay any legal fees, but if there are any settlements, it may get quite expensive, especially if more people join in on the suit.

For some people who never got into a prestigious college either because we didn't have the grades or the money, there's that word again: schadenfreude.

[Ed L]

Thanks for the answer, TGS. It makes sense.

It seems a bit much to be coming to the door of a seemingly harmless Hollywood actress to make an arrest with your guns drawn, BUT the readiness of having the guns drawn combined with the intimidation factor could have prevented an escalation or thoughts of resistance on the part of the people getting arrested.

[Wondering Beard]

Most in attendance forget that a degree is simply a 'tool', not a guarantee of employment or improved intelligence. Many have done quite well without 'advanced education', to wit: Bill Gates.

A lot of people going to elite colleges aren't educated, but credentialed. That's a different type of tool.

[blues]

A lot of people going to elite colleges aren't educated, but credentialed. That's a different type of tool.

Very, very well said.

[mtnbkr]

Yale went (essentially) tution free some number of years ago, after some tech alum gave them yet another 400mil. The motto is "if you can get into Yale, you can go to Yale." It’s the getting in part that’s a bitch, as the entire world competes for the free ride.

Ok. I was unaware of that twist.

Nope. Not even close. Yale has a 29.4 billion dollar endowment. If you want to buy favor at that institution, your check needs to have nine digits in it, before the decimal. It needs at least eight digits beginning with 2 and 5 to get noticed by the people who matter.

I figured a few hundred grand to the right person, not the school as an entity, would work.

Chris

[RevolverRob]

I figured a few hundred grand to the right person, not the school as an entity, would work.

Chris

I mean that's more or less what they did right? Some cash to falsify tests. Some cash to bribe the right people. Some cash to pay the bribers.

The trick is figuring out who to bribe. Since admissions decisions are still pretty complex and archaic in some regards, it can be difficult to determine. In most instances, only a few people have direct influence on admissions and the bulk of those are going to be athletics people and anyone who serves on a substantial scholarship committee. It's hard to fake a scholarship committee interview - but a lot easier to fake an athletic record.

Also, to be clear, tons of kids are admitted to colleges under partial athletic scholarships or athletic recommendations. A bunch of them never make the team(s) and as a result washout. But once admitted, you're admitted. As long as you can pay tuition and you don't flunk out, you're in. So a scheme where a coach recommends someone and then they "don't work out" and make the team, would go largely unnoticed by most folks, because most folks "don't work out". It's only at the really high Division I sports level (and at that, the highly competitive teams), where it might go less noticed. Soccer, Lacrosse, Tennis, Golf? No one knows, no one cares. Football, Basketball? They know and care. Also, you could be a bench warmer the whole time and still have an athletic scholarship or be "injured" the whole time and still have the scholarship.

The other way to get in is to bribe a trustee. They have the influence and power. Which seems a bit like what Lori Loughlin and her daughter were going for. 'Cause I gotta be honest - I can find no (good) explanation for why a 19-year old, freshman, would be found on the yacht of the chairman of the board of trustees of her university during Spring Break. I can think of a lot of nefarious explanations for that, but no good ones. FWIW, USC should have him resign like, yesterday, because that's total bullshit. If I was on my yacht with a bunch of 19-year old freshmen, from my institution, whose grades and academic success I could influence, during Spring Break? I'd be fired, before we tied off back to the dock.

Like fucking fired, fired, fired. Even if I were tenured, I'd have been on administrative leave. But then I'm employed by an institution, not a "trustee" of it.

___

Other food for thought, it's expensive to bribe someone. The risk of getting caught is pretty fair and thus the financial benefit must be high. I one time had a student, several years ago, rather seriously ask how much it would cost for him to get an A. Rather than say, "More than you can afford." I just looked at him and told him the truth, "$500,000-1,000,000 in cash, right now. Because I'm going to lose 5-10 years of salary, by losing my job, and I'll have to start over, completely, in some other field, assuming no criminal charges. If there are criminal charges, then you're going to be liable for those. And I won't pick a cheap attorney." That's for one student, to get an A, one time.

But then again, I'm not cheap to buy off. The fact that some of these guys accepted something like $250,000 in bribes tells me they didn't think it through. 250k doesn't even buy a good attorney.