Authorities in Boston announced charges Tuesday in an alleged large-scale college bribery scheme.
Prosecutors said dozens of people have been charged in what federal officials are calling the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Officials said more than 30 wealthy parents paid admissions consultant William Singer, founder of a college-prep business called The Key, to secure their children’s acceptance to elite schools including Stanford, Georgetown University, and Yale.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said some of the charges are related to bribing coaches, including former Yale coach Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith.
“The head women’s soccer coach at Yale, in exchange for $400,000, accepted an applicant as a recruit for the Yale women’s team despite knowing that the applicant did not even play competitive soccer,” Lelling said. “The student was in fact admitted and afterward the student’s family paid Singer $1.2-million for that service.”
That coach is reportedly a cooperating witness who has pleaded guilty and has been helping the FBI in their investigation.
Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said in a statement, “as the indictment makes clear, the Department of Justice believes that Yale has been the victim of a crime perpetrated by its former women’s soccer coach. The university has cooperated fully in the investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case moves forward.”
Lelling said that the colleges are not targets of the continuing investigation.
Court documents indicate that the admissions consulting company in California was paid $25 million from 2011 through February 2019.
