A Chinese family forked over $6.5 million to get its daughter into Stanford University as part of the college admissions scandal that has rocked the industry this year.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the family paid college consultant Rick Singer, who recently pleaded guilty to money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. In return, Singer — who was connected with the family through a now-fired Morgan Stanley financial adviser — put together a falsified sailing athletic profile and used it to get the student into the elite California school.
The student was admitted in part because of the profile, and Singer's charity later donated $500,000 to the school's sailing program, the Journal reported.
Celebrities and other wealthy parents are accused of shelling out more than $25 million in total to have Singer help their children get into colleges across the country. As part of the scheme, Singer generally did one of two things: he helped the students cheat on their college entrance exams and/or created false athletic profiles for them. It is still unclear how many of the students were aware of the scheme.
Hollywood actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among those implicated.