Varsity Blues scandal
Operation Varsity Blues was the code name for the investigation into the 2019 criminal conspiracy scandal to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities.
United States federal prosecutors made the investigation and related charges public on March 12, 2019. At least 53 people have been charged as part of the conspiracy, a number of whom pled guilty. Thirty-three parents of college applicants were accused of paying more than US$25million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer, organizer of the scheme, who used part of the money to fraudulently inflate entrance exam test scores and bribe college officials. Of the 32 parents named in a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, more than half had apparently paid bribes to have their children enrolled at the University of Southern California.
Singer controlled the two firms involved in the scheme, Key Worldwide Foundation and The Edge College & Career Network. He pled guilty and cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in gathering incriminating evidence against co-conspirators. He said he unethically facilitated college admission for children in more than 750 families. Singer faced up to 65 years in prison, and a fine of $1.25million. In January 2023, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison plus forfeiture of over $10 million. He was released from prison in August 2024.
Prosecutors in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, led by United States Attorney Andrew Lelling, unsealed indictments and complaints for felony conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud against 50 people, including Singer, who has been "portrayed as a criminal mastermind", university staff he bribed, and parents who were alleged to have used bribery and fraud to secure admission for their children to 11 universities. Among the accused parents are prominent business-people and well-known actors. Those charges have a maximum term of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $250,000 fine. One month later, 16 of the parents were also indicted by prosecutors for alleged felony conspiracy to commit money laundering. This third charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a supervised release of three years, and a $500,000 fine.
The investigation's name, Operation Varsity Blues, comes from a 1999 film of the same name. The case is the largest of its kind to be prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Discovery and charges
The Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged that beginning in 2011, 33 parents of high school students conspired with other people to use bribery and other forms of fraud to illegally arrange to have their children admitted to top colleges and universities. Authorities became aware of the scheme around April 2018 when Los Angeles businessman Morrie Tobin, who was under investigation in an unrelated case for alleged pump-and-dump conspiracy and securities fraud, offered information in exchange for leniency in the previously existing, unrelated case.Tobin, who had attended but not graduated from Yale University, told authorities that the Yale women's soccer head coach, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, had asked him for $450,000 in exchange for helping his youngest daughter gain admission to the school. As part of his cooperation with the FBI, Tobin wore a recording device while talking to Meredith in a Boston hotel on April 12, 2018; Meredith subsequently agreed to cooperate with the authorities and led them to Singer. Meredith pleaded guilty as part of his cooperation with the prosecution. Tobin was not charged in this case, but in February 2019 he pleaded guilty in the unrelated securities fraud case. United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines, to which judges often refer when deciding sentences, call for between eight and ten years behind bars. According to The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and CBS, prosecutors recommended 36 months of supervised release. In addition, Tobin agreed to forfeit $4million as part of his plea deal. Tobin was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
On March 12, 2019, federal prosecutors in Boston unsealed a criminal complaint charging 50 people with conspiracy to commit felony mail fraud and honest services mail fraud in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 1349. Those charges have a maximum term of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $250,000 fine. The charges were announced by Andrew Lelling, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Rosen, Justin O'Connell, Leslie Wright, and Kristen Kearney of the securities and financial fraud unit were assigned as prosecutors of the case. FBI special agent Laura Smith signed the 204-page affidavit in support of the charges.
On April 9, 16 of the original 33 charged parents, who had not pleaded guilty to the original charges, were additionally charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering by federal prosecutors in Boston in a superseding indictment. The indictment added those defendants to an existing case against David Sidoo, another of the 33 parents, that was already pending before Judge Nathaniel Gorton. The indictment alleged that the parents engaged in a conspiracy to launder bribes paid to Singer "by funneling them through Singer's purported charity and his for-profit corporation." This third charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, supervised release of three years, and a $500,000 fine.
Two parents in the scandal, Gamal Aziz and John B. Wilson, did not settle and went to trial. In October 2021, they were both convicted of fraud and bribery conspiracy charges. In February 2022, the two parents were sentenced respectively to 12 months and 15 months in jail as well as fines and community service. Both parents appealed their convictions.
On May 10, 2023, the First Circuit vacated most of Aziz and Wilson's convictions. The appellate court found that prosecutors had read honest services fraud too broadly and that universities did not have a property interest in admissions slots. The court affirmed Wilson's conviction for filing a false tax return after he attempted to deduct his bribes from his tax return. Wilson was ultimately sentenced on September 29, 2023 to one year of probation with the first six months to be served in home detention, 250 hours of community service, a fine of $75,000 and restitution in the amount of $88,546.
In June 2022, the final defendant in the investigation, Amin Khoury, was acquitted at trial of bribing a Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter into Georgetown. Khoury was accused of delivering $180,000 in a paper bag to the tennis coach through a middleman, not involving William Singer. Khoury, who was represented by attorney Roy Black, was the only defendant in the Varsity Blues investigation to gain an acquittal at trial.
Allegations
Federal prosecutors alleged a college-admission scheme that involved:- bribing exam administrators to facilitate cheating on college and university entrance exams;
- bribing coaches and administrators of elite universities to nominate unqualified applicants as elite recruited athletes, thus facilitating the applicants' admission;
- using a charitable organization to conceal the source and nature of laundered bribery payments.
Methods of fraudulent admission
Singer primarily used two fraudulent techniques to help clients' children gain admission to elite universities: cheating on college entrance exams and fabrication of elite sports credentials.Cheating on college entrance exams
Singer arranged to enable clients' children to cheat on the SAT or ACT college admission tests. Singer worked with psychologists to complete the detailed paperwork required to falsely certify clients' children as having a learning disability; this in turn gave them access to accommodations, such as extra time, while taking the tests. Singer said he could obtain a falsified disability report from a psychologist for $4,000 to $5,000, and that the report could be re-used to fraudulently obtain similar benefits at the schools.Once the paperwork was complete, Singer told clients to invent false travel plans to arrange to have their child's test locations moved to a test center under his control, either in West Hollywood or Houston. Parents might also be advised to fabricate a family event that could provide a pretense for the student to take the SAT, ACT, or other test at a private location where Singer could have complete control over the testing process.
In some cases, the student was involved directly in the fraud. In others, the fraud was kept secret from the student and corrupt proctors altered tests on their behalf after the fact. In some cases, other people posed as the students to take the tests. Mark Riddell, a Harvard alumnus and college admission exam preparation director at IMG Academy, was one of the stand-in test takers who took over two dozen exams; he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and one count of money laundering, and agreed to cooperate with investigators. Prosecutors said he was paid $10,000 per test, and the government was seeking to recover almost $450,000 from him in forfeiture. Riddell did not have advance access to the test papers, but was described as "just a really smart guy". He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, but reportedly prosecutors said that because of his cooperation they would instead likely recommend 33 months' imprisonment at his November 1, 2019 sentencing hearing.
According to recorded phone calls, the transcripts of which were included in court filings, Singer claimed that the practice of fraudulently obtaining accommodations such as extra testing time, intended for those with legitimate learning disabilities, was widespread outside of his particular scheme:
For example, Jane Buckingham was arrested on March 12, 2019, for allegedly submitting false paperwork saying her son had a learning disability; and paying $50,000 to Key Worldwide Foundation for a proctor to take the ACT on her son's behalf, scoring a 35 out of 36. The goal was entrance to the University of Southern California. Portions of recorded conversations between Buckingham and a cooperating witness were included in the FBI's affidavit.