Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin Among Dozens Charged in U.S. College Admissions Scam

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in America's Best University Admissions

Federal prosecutors charged William Singer with running racketeering scheme

Thomson Reuters ·

Federal prosecutors in Boston have charged William Singer with running the $25-million US racketeering scheme,

which served a roster of clients, including Hollywood actors such as Felicity Huffman.

(Peter Kramer/Getty Images) I'm guessing this photo was taken before #MeToo

Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Lori Loughlin (Full House/Fuller House) were among 50 people charged by U.S. federal prosecutors on Tuesday in a $25-million US scheme to help wealthy Americans cheat their children's way into elite universities such as Yale and Stanford.

Federal prosecutors in Boston charged William (Rick) Singer, 58, with running the racketeering scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which served a roster of clients, including CEOs and Hollywood actors.

Prosecutors said Singer's operation arranged for fake testers to take college admissions exams in place of his clients' children, and also bribed coaches to give admissions slots meant to be reserved for recruited athletes, even if the applicants had no athletic ability.

Parents paid tens of thousands of dollars for Singer's services, which were masked as charitable contributions, prosecutors said.

Philanthropist David Sidoo accused of paying $200K to help sons pass U.S. college entrance exams

Singer is scheduled to plead guilty on Tuesday in Boston federal court to charges, including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice, according to court papers. He could not be reached for immediate comment.

Thirty-three parents, including actor Lori Loughlin, were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer's business. (Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

Some 33 parents, including Huffman and Loughlin, were charged, as well as 13 coaches and associates of Singer's business. Huffman and Loughlin were not immediately available for comment.

On a call with one parent, prosecutors said Singer summed up his business thusly: "What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school … my families want a guarantee."

The scheme began in 2011, prosecutors said, and also helped children get into the University of Texas, Georgetown University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Part of the scheme involved advising parents to pretend to test administrators that their child had learning disabilities that allowed them extended time to take the exam.

The parents were then advised to choose one of two test centres that Singer's company said it had control over: one in Houston and the other in West Hollywood, Calif.

The test administrators in those centres took bribes to allow Singer's clients to cheat, often by arranging to have a student's wrong answers corrected after completing the exam, or having another person take the exam.

In many cases, the students were not aware that their parents had arranged for the cheating, prosecutors said.

Some of them are now!

John Vandemoor, a former Stanford sailing coach, is also scheduled to plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges.

Colorado’s Legalized Marijuana has Resulted in Hospital Visits for Children

Marijuana-infused gummy candies (L) purchased in Northglenn, Colorado are shown next regular ones. © Rick Wilking / Reuters  Do these people have a brain in their heads? What did they think would happen when you make marijuana gummy bears? Is it spectacular stupidity or do they just not care about children?

The rate of marijuana exposure in young children in Colorado has increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products became available on the legal market, a new study says. This has led to more children ending up in hospitals.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatric on Monday, says that the number of children admitted into hospitals and poison control centers due to being exposed to marijuana has sharply risen in Colorado since the state legalized pot.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in Aurora, looked at admissions information from a children's hospital and data from a regional poison center between 2009 and 2015. They found that 81 children, all of whom were under 10 years old, were treated at the hospital, and that 163 exposure calls were made to the poison center. The poison center cases increased by 34 percent each year, compared to the average 19 percent increase in the rest of the US.

“Marijuana exposures in young children have resulted in respiratory compromise requiring the use of a ventilator and intensive care unit admission in a handful of cases,” senior author Dr. Genie Roosevelt of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority told CBS News.

Officials had hoped that the child-resistant packaging requirements that are part of the recreational marijuana law would cause a drop in accidental exposures in children, but the increase was more dramatic than expected, Roosevelt said.

Marijuana-related visits to the children’s hospital increased from 1.2 per 100,000 in 2012 – two years before legalization – to 2.3 per 100,000 two years after the law was passed. Half of the children were under three years of age.

That is almost double! And since half of them were under three, we can probably assume that the entire increase has been borne by children under 3.

Research has shown a strong connection between marijuana use in under 16s, and full-blown, irreversible schizophrenia. There has been no research, according to Colorado Children's Hospital, on the effects of marijuana on a one or two year old child. 

We know that short-term effects are inversely proportional to a child's size and weight. Whether there are long-term effects from a single exposure is extremely important to know and state legislators should wipe the dollar signs from their eyes and find out, and start protecting children. It's obvious some parents can't be bothered.

Colorado’s increase is happening faster than the rest of the US, researchers wrote. Most of the time, the marijuana was owned by family or friends.

The main culprit behind the exposure is believed to be edibles, or sweets that are infused with THC - the active ingredient in marijuana. These candies or baked goods are easily mistaken with child-friendly versions, and children who are exposed can become agitated, lethargic, vomit, and lose balance.

Colorado just enacted a bill effective July 1 that bans edible marijuana products that might catch the eye of children. As part of the bill, marijuana can no longer be sold in the shape of humans, animals, or fruits.

They should not allow THC laced candies period. What insanity!

"The caretakers were leaving these in plain sight of children and outside of child-safe packaging," Roosevelt told CBS News. "We'd like people to think of these products as medication. Stored out of sight and away from children, like your aunt's diabetic medication. We need to make that cultural leap.”

You are asking marijuana users to act responsibly....good luck with that.

Last week, the town of Hugo, Colorado, told residents to stop drinking tap water because the municipal supply had tested positive for THC - an unintended consequence of the legal marijuana boom that brought Colorado more than $135 million in tax revenue in 2015.

Twenty-three states have passed laws that allow for medical marijuana use. Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, DC, have joined Colorado in passing laws that allow marijuana for recreational use by people aged 21 or older.