“Integrity in admissions is vital to the academic and ethical standards of our university,” the University of Texas said in a statement.
At the center of the scheme is a Newport Beach, California-based company called Edge College & Career Network LLC, which was run by Singer, prosecutors said. He allegedly agreed with clients to have an accomplice, Florida resident Mark Riddell, take the ACT or SAT college admissions tests in their children’s place or correct their answers after they took the exams themselves. The parents allegedly paid between $15,000 and $75,000 to Singer alone per test, structuring their payments as donations to a California-based charity affiliated with his company, Key Worldwide Foundation, according to prosecutors.
Singer instructed parents to "seek extended time on the exams, including by having their children purport to have learning disabilities,” authorities claim.
Singer allegedly used the bogus charitable donations to bribe two other defendants, who administered the tests at a private school in Los Angeles and a public school in Houston, according to the indictment. The bribes to let Riddell take the tests were typically $5,000 to $10,000, the U.S. said.
Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said at a press conference Tuesday that the probe began when federal authorities were interviewing a target in a different case.
"Our first lead in this case came during interviews with a target of an entirely separate investigation who gave us a tip this activity might be going on," Lelling said.
This article provided by Bloomberg News.