Students Could Be Charged in College Admissions Scandal: Reports

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
April 16, 2019US News
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Students Could Be Charged in College Admissions Scandal: Reports
Actress Lori Loughlin (C) poses with daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli (L) and Isabella Rose Giannulli at the 2019 An Unforgettable Evening in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 28, 2019. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

The children of parents embroiled in the nationwide college admissions scandal could be charged in the case, according to new reports.

Thirty-three parents were charged in the scheme in indictments revealed on March 12, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.

Prosecutors said that the parents donated to a nonprofit run by William “Rick” Singer. In exchange, Singer got some of the children designated as athletic recruits despite their lack of competitive experience; in others, he had associates, principally Florida school director Mark Riddell, doctor children’s SAT and ACT exams.

Singer and Riddell have both pleaded guilty in the case.

William "Rick" Singer founder of the Edge College & Career Network
William “Rick” Singer founder of the Edge College & Career Network, departs federal court in Boston after he pleaded guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal on March 12, 2019. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)

Federal prosecutors have now sent letters to some college students and graduates whose parents were implicated in the scandal, telling the children they may also be targets in the probe, a source told the Wall Street Journal. Law360 also reported on the letters.

“Prosecutors sent the letters to young adults believed to have known about the schemes that aimed to help get them into college,” the Journal reported.

“Such so-called target letters don’t mean the students or graduates who received them will face charges. However, they could prompt the recipients to speak to authorities and push parents to plead in the hopes of protecting their children from additional prosecution,” said others knowledgeable about the case.

Not all of the children who allegedly benefited from their parents’ payments to Singer received the target letters, sources said.

Federal authorities said last month that in some cases the children were aware of what was going on while in others they didn’t know.

There were instances “where it’s important to parents that their child not know that this had occurred, in that kind of instance, the student would actually go and take the exam and someone working for Singer [Riddell] would come in afterward, correct enough of the answers, submit the exam,” Boston U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said at the press conference announcing the charges.. “In some instances, however, the child did know.”

He added, “There was a pretty wide range of how parents tried to play this and Singer, I think, accommodated what the parents wanted to do.”

The indictments contained a slew of transcripts from emails and phone calls obtained by officials outlining the case against each of the 50 people charged in the scheme. In one case, authorities said that Isabelle Henriquez, the daughter of a California CEO, knew about the scheme.

Manuel Henriquez, 55, chairman and CEO of Hercules Capital in Palo Alto, was indicted along with his wife Elizabeth Henriquez, 56. Prosecutors said (pdf) that the Henriquezes paid Singer $25,000 in order for one of Singer’s associates to “purport to proctor [Isabelle’s] SAT exam and correct her answers.”

CEO's daughter gloated over cheating on SAT
Isabelle Henriquez “gloated” with her mother and a man who helped her cheat on an SAT exam, prosecutors said. (LinkedIn)

The exam took place at a private college prep school in Belmont. Singer’s associate corresponded with Isabelle’s high school counselor, claiming that because he and his wife had just had a baby that he needed any work he could get. On Oct. 3, 2015, the exam took place.

According to the associate, who cooperated with authorities, “unbeknownst to the school, he sat side-by-side with the daughter during the exam and provided her with answers to the exam questions.

“After the exam, he ‘gloated’ with Elizabeth Henriquez and her daughter about the fact that they had cheated and gotten away with it,” prosecutors added.

Isabelle received a score of 1,900 out of a possible 2,400, an improvement of 320 points over the best score she’d previously achieved.

The family later agreed to pay Singer $75,000 for Singer’s help with their younger daughter’s ACT exam and allegedly utilized Singer’s connections to bribe Gordon Ernst, the head tennis coach at Georgetown University, “to designate their older daughter [Isabelle] as a recruited athlete, in order to facilitate her admission,” prosecutors said, citing emails they obtained.

NTD Photo
Gordon Ernst, 52, in a file photo. (Georgetown University Athletics)

Singer drafted one email for Isabelle to later send to Ernst that stated, among other things, “I have been really successful this summer playing tennis around the country. I am looking forward to having a chance to be part of the Georgetown tennis team and make a positive contribution to your team’s success.”

Ernst received the email and forwarded it to an admissions officer, adding “Potential spot.” Singer later created an essay for Isabelle that included “talk about tennis,” in which he wrote for Isabelle that “[B]eing a part of Georgetown women’s tennis team has always been a dream of mine.”

The fraudulent SAT scores were part of the application. She was ultimately offered admission to the school. The Henriquez Family Trust later contributed $400,000 to Singer’s organization.

Singer sent a receipt to Elizabeth Henriquez that stated the gift would “allow us to move forward with our plans to provide educational and self-enrichment programs to disadvantaged youth.” The trust later sent another $950,000 to Singer’s organization, prosecutors said.

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