On March 12, 50 people were charged with bribing several ivy league colleges, in order to admit their children into the schools. The group of parents charged were made up of celebrities, business executives, and others.
Some of the most notable charged is star of Netflix special, Fuller House, Lori Loughlin and the Actress Felicity Huffman who is best known for her role in the hit series, Desperate Housewives. Some of the institutions involved were Yale, University of Southern California, University of San Diego, and University of Texas at Austin just to name a few. It has been said that anyone who has applied to any of the schools involved between 2012-2018, who has paid an application fee, and has been rejected, is allowed to sue the institutions.
The people involved were apart of a college bribery ring that was started by a man named William Rick Singer. William Singer is the CEO of a college counseling company called the Key, which has helped over 90,000 adults and students seek undergraduate and graduate degrees for 20 years. He came up with the idea of paying people to fake exam scores and bribing coaches to place the applicants on the universities’ sports teams. Singer is said to be possibly facing up to 10 to 20 years in prison for money laundering conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and obstruction of justice.
The children of the parents involved either knew, or didn’t know, about their parents misdeeds, but all involved are now facing the consequences. Olivia Jade Giannulli, daughter of Lori Loughlin, lost her partnership with Sephora and recently the Hallmark channel has severed ties with the young influencer’s mother. The scandal has represented a new low in America’s academic history, highlighting the economic inequalities between the rich and the poor in the U.S.