Two more parents have been sentenced in the college admissions scandal. Been watching the news lately and no more sentences have been declared in the last six weeks.
According to my count of the status listed by Wikipedia, there are 6 parents who have a plea deal and are awaiting sentencing. Another 15 parents are awaiting trial.
New sentencing since my last post on 10/28/19:
In the last week and a half, there have been two more parents sentenced with four entering plea deals. Additional charges have been brought against parents who are still fighting the charges.
One parent released
That makes #4 through #9 that have been sentenced.
First of the parents has reported for her free federal housing.
Other articles:
10/15/19 – NPR – Felicity Huffman Begins 14-Day Prison Term in College Admissions Scandal – She reported early for her 14 day sentence.
On 10/16/19, the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator website shows her with register 77806-112, located at Dublin FCI, with release date of 10/27/19. That means she would have actually reported on 10/13/19, I think. Dublin FCI is low security federal institution with an adjacent low security satellite camp. It is located in Alameda county, California. See overhead photo above.
10/15/19 – Wall Street Journal – In College-Admissions Case, Lawyers for Coaches, Others Move to Dismiss Charges – A number of parents are filing motions that the conspiracy charges are cast too wide, including parents who weren’t participating with anyone, thus the charges are more severe than they ought to be. I don’t understand the purpose of the argument, but appears to be effort to separate some of the less-involved parents from the taint of being publicly associated with the more severe cases.
Details of sentencing
Two more parents have been sentenced in the admissions scheming. Also, the judge handling 10 plea deals outlines the rationale for sentencing.
Los Angeles Times – 9/23/19 – Prosecutors in college admissions scandal fighting for prison time for parents. The judge scheduled to sentence 10 more parents in the “Varsity Blues” admissions fiasco decided on the basis for which she will determine sentences. Prosecutors had sought to use the amount of money paid as guiding the sentence. Judge decided the actions of the parents will guide her sentencing.
Two new sentencings
9/27/19 – Stephen Semprevivo – Sentenced to 4 months in jail, 2 years supervised release, 500 hours community service, $100,000 fine, possible restitution to Georgetown. He allegedly paid $400,000 to the fake charity, which in turn allegedly paid the Georgetown tennis coach. Plan was to present the son as a competitive tennis player.
A second sentence has been handed down in the “Varsity Blues” college-admissions scandal. I’ll make a completely wild guess on what the sentencing might hint for others facing sentencing or trial. Another parent has been charged.
Finally, link to a database from Wikipedia of the accused parents, their background, number of children involved, and name of school.
Of note to readers of this blog is that I’ve not seen any comments that implicate any of the schools beyond some of their staff doing under the table deals.
7/9/19 – Stanford sailing coach – Sentenced to 1 day in jail, 6 months house detention, 2 years supervised release, and $10K fine. Prosecution sought 1 year. This is described as the least severe of the cases since the coach didn’t receive any money directly and only one student was admitted.
9/13/19 – Felicity Huffman – Sentenced to 14 days in jail, yes 14 days, one year supervised release, 250 hours community service and $30,000 fine. Prosecutors asked for 30 days, one year supervised release, and $20K fine.
The first reports of a new college admissions scandal indicated the scheme was in play in Illinois. A small number of minutes research on the ol’ net shows the scandal is now open in Missouri.
With a sinking feeling, I am wondering where else this will show itself.
Scheme reportedly exists in Missouri
Kansas City Star – 8/5/19 – Did rich Missouri families give up custody of kids to get college aid? How’s that legal? Cases have been found of families in Missouri transferring guardianship of children in order to get financial aid.
At a status conference update for the college admissions scandal, the prosecutors said they have turned over about 3 million pages of documents to the attorneys for the 19 defendants still fighting the charges. This includes around a million pages of emails and 4,500 phone conversations which were wiretapped.
Several attorneys claim they want to see all the FBI interview forms (those infamous 302s, which are subsequently prepared notes of interviews documented at some various time after the interview) for all of the people *not* charged in the investigation. The claim is there is exculpatory evidence somewhere in the 302s. The judge denied that request for the moment.
For more info, check out USA Today on 6/3/19: College admissions scandal: Parents say payments to ringleader weren’t bribes. Next status conference is on October 1.
Another scheme
Financial aid calculations are based on family income and assets. If a student is assessed as ‘independent’ only the student’s income and assets enter the calculation.
So, how do you get mom’s and dad’s high income and very expensive house removed from the calculation so the student gets a bunch more assistance?
Anyone who has been an adult a few years or has read news for more than , oh a few weeks, knows there is massive ugliness in the world.
Anyone who has been in leadership of a church or ministry for more than a few months knows the ugliness we see in the world is also present in the community of believers.
Why read about and then study messiness?
There are several disasters in the Christian community at the moment which leaders should pay attention to.
Why?
So we can learn. By observing we can be better prepared for dealing with horrible things if (or rather when) they appear in our area of responsibility.
In my professional role as auditor over the last few decades I have observed moral failure of leaders, embezzlement, fraudulent financial misstatements, tax fraud, and sundry other unpleasantness. (Okay, okay, sin is the correct description of those things.)
Because of confidentiality requirements, I cannot discuss anything about any of those issues.
Current, public issues are a different story. Having no connection to those incidents frees me to discuss them.
Willow Creek Community Church
A major scandal has been in the news at Willow Creek for over a year. Here is a tour of some articles which can fill you in.
What can you learn as a leader from this fiasco?
3/22/18 – Christianity Today – Bill Hybels Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Former Willow Creek Leaders. Article summarizes a range of allegations that had surfaced over the previous five years, including stories of decades old misbehaviors.
A sentence has been handed down in the first of the college admission scandal cases to reach a judge. The former sailing coach at Stanford received:
Prosecutors recommended 13 months in prison.
Several articles pointed out this person is the lease culpable of those lined up for sentencing. He did not receive any money directly.
If I read the articles correctly, the only student admitted as part of this scheme was not actually an athlete and has since been expelled. No other students were admitted.
One key point of detention is an assessment of what type of crime is present.
The pretend-to-be-an-athlete-in-a-sport-you-have-never-even-played scandal in higher education is one of many issues I have not focused on over the last year or more.
Family issues have pulled me away from blogging. Hope to start getting caught up on the massive changes taking place around us. I’ll begin with the college admissions disaster.
Brief background:
A large number of parents were paying Mr. William “Rick” Singer to help their children get into colleges where their kids wouldn’t otherwise gain admission.
More background:
The schemes, according to a long string of articles covered in most newspapers which I won’t link, included techniques such as:
Flow of cash was complicated, as expected. Most of the dollars went to a non-profit foundation set up by Mr. Singer. He then distributed portions of the money to college sports coaches, proctors, and other participants. Some of the payments went directly from the parents to the colleges.
Oh, by making those payments to a charity, the payments became tax deductible. So there is also a tax fraud angle for all the involved parents to ponder. You can easily guess someone from IRS Criminal Investigations is involved in each of the cases.
Current status:
If you are planning to do something that our society says is a felony, or even thinking about it, please don’t.
Please change your plans. You won’t like the result.
If you are still pondering something that our society says is a felony, you might want to avoid using electronic devices that record your planning. Definitely don’t use your phone in commission of the actual crime.
Here are a few examples of what not to do, for amusement of people who are inclined to read my blog. People likely to go ahead with felonious plans probably are not in my audience.
Tip #1
Don’t take along your location recording fitness device while conducting reconnaissance to plan an assassination and definitely don’t take it along for the ‘hit’: Runners World -1/17/19 – This Runner is a Hitman. His GPS Watch Tied Him to a Mob Boss Murder.
A competitive distance runner who moon lighted as a contract hit man took along his fitbit watch as he conducted recon and planning runs for two different assassinations. Also wore it for one of the actual hits. Police looked at the recorded location information on the watch which showed him making recon runs and placed him at the scene of the hit.
Result: Life in prison.
Tip #2
Don’t conduct an Internet search with questions of whether your plans are illegal: Cleveland.com – 10/19/18 – Brooklyn Woman falsely accused Parma Heights police chief of rape, investigators say.
A 1983 deserter from the U.S. Air Force was arrested in 2018 and has now been tried and sentenced.
I was advised today by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation that the now-former officer has been tried and dismissed from the service. I’m working to find out the results of his trial and his current status. As more details are learned, updates will be posted.
Update 3/4/20: Deserter from U.S. Air Force in 1983 was convicted at general court-martial, dismissed from service, and spent a short time in prison.
Desertion
Back in July 1983, while the Cold War was still running, USAF Captain William Howard Hughes Jr. deserted after returning to Albuquerque from a TDY in Europe. He did not report to his duty station on August 1, 1983.
He was last seen making 19 withdraws from his bank account totaling $28,500. That may have been around a year’s gross salary at the time. Would have allowed him to run and hide for a while as he worked on his new identity. His car was abandoned at the Albuquerque airport.
To prevent an even stronger privacy proposition from appearing on the ballot in the fall, the California legislators rushed through a bill providing strong privacy rights for all California citizens. Companies making lots of money from the ‘net dislike the bill but supported it in order to derail the proposition.
Since the law doesn’t go into effect until 2020, there is plenty of time for the legislators to agree with the inevitable demands from tech companies to water down the bill. Pending the expected vast dilution, the bill provides a few landmark protections for consumers, including:
For our freedom, I offer up a humble thank you to all who have gone before standing endless watch, slogging through the jungle mud, freezing in a foxhole, shooting Nazis with a machine gun at 30,000 feet, doing yet another round of dreary maintenance, brought home a life-long injury, or paying the ultimate price fighting to defeat the Confederacy.
Because of millions who did what had to be done, I can say what I wish without fear of being thrown in jail.
It seems so insufficient, but I’ll say it anyway – – Thanks.
“It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
