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Federal prosecutors say a Newport Beach, California, business owner conspired with others to have students fraudulently accepted as purported sports recruits.
William “Rick” Singer, of Newport Beach, California, owns and operates Edge College & Career Network LLC, which is a for-profit college counseling and preparation business. Singer, 58, also served as the CEO of Key Worldwide Foundation, a a nonprofit corporation that he established as a purported charity, prosecutors said.
Singer pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Boston federal courtroom to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, tax conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
The businessman is one of the cooperating witnesses mentioned throughout the complaint, according to a law enforcement source.
“I created a side door that would guarantee families would get in,” Singer told the judge. “I was bribing coaches for a spot. And that occurred very frequently.”
Well-known actresses
Actress Felicity Huffman and her spouse “made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 to [Key Worldwide Foundation] to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her oldest daughter,” the complaint said.
She later “made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter before deciding not to do so,” the complaint said.
The Academy Award nominee been charged with felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, according to court paperwork filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts. A law enforcement source confirms to CNN that the actress has been arrested in Los Angeles.
Actress Lori Loughlin, star of “Full House” and “Fuller House,” and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Giannulli allegedly “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000″ in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC.”
The complaint includes alleged emails between a cooperating witness and Giannulli in which the two discussed a “game plan” for his older daughter whose “academic qualifications were at or below the “low-end of USC’s admission standards.”
Loughlin wrote at least one email discussing their younger daughter and her admission.
Giannulli and Loughlin were recorded on calls with a cooperating witness discussing an IRS audit being done on the business involved in the alleged scam and that if ever asked, Loughlin would say they made a donation to the foundation, “end of story.”
Loughlin is on a flight to Los Angeles, where she is expected to surrender later this afternoon, according to a law enforcement source.
CNN has contacted Iconix Brand Group, which owns Mossimo’s namesake fashion company.
The winemaker and other parents
San Francisco resident Agustin Huneeus Jr., who owns vineyards in Napa, California, and elsewhere conspired to “bribe [senior athletic director Donna] Heinel and Jovan Vavic, the USC water polo coach, to facilitate his daughter’s admission to USC as a purported water polo recruit,” the complaint said.
Huneeus has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, the complaint said. Heinel and Vavic are accused of conspiracy to commit racketeering.
CNN has reached out to all three defendants.
Other parents in the alleged scam include the CEO of a Los Angeles-based boutique marketing firm who “agreed to make a purported charitable donation of $50,000” to Key Worldwide in exchange for having a cooperating witness take the ACT on behalf of her son at a Houston test center, the complaint said.
Another defendant is a Greenwich, Connecticut, resident who is an attorney at a New York international law firm. The attorney paid a “purported charitable donation of $75,000” to Key Worldwide, the complaint said.
A cooperating witness arranged for the director of college entrance exam preparation at a private school in Bradenton, Florida, to purport to proctor the attorney’s daughter’s ACT exam and “correct the answers after she had completed it,” the complaint said.
Other parents include the founder and chairman of a packaging company for the food and beverage industry who lives in Aspen, Colorado, and New York. He and his wife are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
College coaches and administrators
Coaches at Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest and Georgetown are among those implicated in the alleged conspiracy. CNN has reached out to all of the schools.
According to the complaint, another parent “conspired to bribe” Heinel, the USC senior associate athletic director, to designate his daughter as a basketball recruit in order to get her into the university.
At the request of a cooperating witness, a former USC assistant women’s soccer coach created a fake basketball profile for that defendant’s daughter, the complaint said. She is accused of conspiracy to commit racketeering.
Heinel allegedly submitted the defendant’s daughter to a USC subcommittee for athletic admissions in October 2017 and the student was admitted as basketball recruit. The student entered USC in fall 2018 but did not join the basketball team, the complaint said.
University of Southern California said Tuesday of the alleged scheme: “We are aware of the ongoing wide-ranging criminal investigation involving universities nationwide, including USC. USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation.
“We understand that the government believes that illegal activity was carried out by individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university. USC is conducting an internal investigation and will take employment actions as appropriate,” the statement said.
CNN is going through the complaint regarding other allegations. Return for updates.
CNN’s Mark Morales contributed to this report.
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