WP: FBI accuses wealthy parents, including celebrities, in college-entrance bribery scheme

[ixcuincle]

some of them are acctualy showing remorse

 

lori though keeps insisting she did nothin wrong. not a good look especially when sentencing comes down 

[Destino]

6 hours ago, Fresh8686 said:

For real, **** these parents and what the hell is this expectation to lie and cheat and do all sorts of **** for your kid?

I agree that it was wrong, I just can't get on board with treating this as something monstrous.  Parents stack the deck in their kids favor in a variety of ways from small innocent things to bigger more overt actions.  Some examples: "helping" with their homework, a bit too much.  Getting them into a programs they otherwise wouldn't get into because you're friends with a guy that knows a guy.  Getting them a job later in life using your own connections.  Paying for a lawyer when their kids get into some serious trouble. 

 

So yes, this was definitely wrong.  I just don't have any outrage in me for this.

 

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My parents weren't like that, because they knew it was important to have a global sense of responsibility and preservation as well an individual sense. I sucked at learning that responsibility and went to prison myself as a result, but that ultimately helped me learn and practice it. A parent is failing their own and their child's development if they can't understand that you don't break the system to help your kid. We all depend on a threshold level of trust and good faith for this ecosystem of a society to work.

I believe that trust is placed in the people that hold the power.  If someone is taking bribes than they have changed the rules by doing so.  It's not like rich parents are running around with their checkbooks out asking everyone on campus what their price is for getting their kid in.  It's the bribe takers that essentially open up shop, and when they do parents are asked to let their kid fail or cross an ethical boundary for their children.  It's really not surprising that parents with the means, and faced with this proposition, agree to pay the money. 

 

 

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There is a line you don't cross. Help your kid, support your kid, but don't **** up the system to give your kid a free ride because he or she never developed the capability to make it on your own. **** those parents and **** those kids till they learn otherwise and actually earn their way.

Americans are all about this idea that relying on family stunts your growth and dooms you to failure.  I even read articles where the writer is horrified that some adult kids still live at home.  Maybe they're right, but I certainly don't subscribe to it. 

 

As for the system, the US education system is built around the idea of paying for advantage.  Compare public schools in a poor area, to those in wealthy areas, to good private schools, to elite boarding schools.  It's crystal clear how things are meant to work. 

 

Keep in mind that I'm not saying these parents should get away with it.  I think they deserve a criminal record and a steep fine.  I'd just prefer prison be reserved for criminals the public has an interests and getting off the streets.  We jail too many people as it is.  I don't see the need for parents that tried to bribe a corrupt college gatekeeper to end up in prison.   

Edited May 14, 2019 by Destino

[tshile]

12 minutes ago, Destino said:

It's the bribe takers that essentially open up shop, and when they do parents are asked to let their kid fail or cross an ethical boundary for their children.  It's really not surprising that parents with the means, and faced with this proposition, agree to pay the money. 

 

Well, now come on. We’re talking about paying to get them into a specific university (for whatever reason)

 

the other option was not “fail”. It was join the rest of us in throwing applications at different levels of universities and seeing how far down the list you have to go before you’re accepted. 

 

I’m not asking you to be outraged and want their heads, I just think you’re going overboard with their justification. 

 

Im even willing to be telling your friends “my daughter was accepted/attends <prestigious university>” was real high on the list of justifications for doing this. 

 

I dont think fear fear of failure at life was really the motivating factor. 

 

12 minutes ago, Destino said:

 

Americans are all about this idea that relying on family stunts your growth and dooms you to failure.  I even read articles where the writer is horrified that some adult kids still live at home.  Maybe they're right, but I certainly don't subscribe to it. 

 

Agree completely. 

 

I think family helping each other is the easiest/best way for future generations to do better in life. 

 

Just do it legally. Hell theres a lot of shady things you can do that are still legal. 

[Destino]

8 minutes ago, tshile said:

 

Well, now come on. We’re talking about paying to get them into a specific university (for whatever reason)

 

the other option was not “fail”. It was join the rest of us in throwing applications at different levels of universities and seeing how far down the list you have to go before you’re accepted. 

 

I’m not asking you to be outraged and want their heads, I just think you’re going overboard with their justification. 

 

Im even willing to be telling your friends “my daughter was accepted/attends <prestigious university>” was real high on the list of justifications for doing this. 

 

I dont think fear fear of failure at life was really the motivating factor. 

 

You're right, I am being overly charitable towards these parents.  Some of that is simply for sake of argument, and some of it is that I'm sympathetic towards parents.  I think as a parent it can often feel like failure.  Both for yourself and your kids.  Parents aren't 100% rational when it comes to their own children. 

[Fresh8686]

1 hour ago, Destino said:

I agree that it was wrong, I just can't get on board with treating this as something monstrous.  Parents stack the deck in their kids favor in a variety of ways from small innocent things to bigger more overt actions.  Some examples: "helping" with their homework, a bit too much.  Getting them into a programs they otherwise wouldn't get into because you're friends with a guy that knows a guy.  Getting them a job later in life using your own connections.  Paying for a lawyer when their kids get into some serious trouble. 

 

So yes, this was definitely wrong.  I just don't have any outrage in me for this.

It's not about outrage, it's about what behavior we do or do not accept and the consequence we apply to it, in order to stop or limit the escalation of that behavior. If left unchecked, corrupt behavior will continue to escalate, it is a cancer, it has no self-restraint. We used to be a country that at least tried to give the appearance that we cared about and aspired to hold merit and integrity in high esteem, but now our society doesn't even care about being trustworthy or doing things the right way. So many people instead aspire to be con-men or gangsters and people have no problems publicly saying it's okay to **** other people over as long as it's legal (or you don't get caught). What kind of **** is that? Do people not understand the pragmatic point of morals, the necessity of a large chunk of people keeping the faith in order for a system to properly function?

 

I believe that trust is placed in the people that hold the power.  If someone is taking bribes than they have changed the rules by doing so.  It's not like rich parents are running around with their checkbooks out asking everyone on campus what their price is for getting their kid in.  It's the bribe takers that essentially open up shop, and when they do parents are asked to let their kid fail or cross an ethical boundary for their children.  It's really not surprising that parents with the means, and faced with this proposition, agree to pay the money. 

Trust is not just the responsibility of our "leaders". We are responsible for it as well. We are the stewards of trust as a societal mechanism in that it is our responsibility to bring consequences to those that breach that trust. We are the ones who protect it, when leaders neglect it. You say "it's not like rich parents are running around with..." Are you sure about that? If these parents aren't given any impactful consequences this behavior will escalate. It is idiocy to expect self-restraint from corruption. Do you think Trump is all of the sudden going to say, you know what I've corrupted and fleeced enough from the US, I'll stop all that and start showing some self-restraint and accountability? **** no. These people are the same. They won't stop themselves and you're fooling yourself if you don't think these parents were just as responsible for this as the people they paid off. This isn't like a drug dealer lacing a blunt with crack in order to get people hooked on a drug they had no interest in trying. With these parents the interest was mutual. The demand was always there.

 

Americans are all about this idea that relying on family stunts your growth and dooms you to failure.  I even read articles where the writer is horrified that some adult kids still live at home.  Maybe they're right, but I certainly don't subscribe to it. 

Really? That's an overly extreme and myopic position. I didn't grow up like that, but I'm born from mixed parents and strong family support structures in conjunction with working and earning my way. Cheating is what corrupts your growth, using leverage is literally a trade off between doing stuff under your own power and gaining positive adaptations as a result versus using outside leverage to succeed but miss out on the adaptations and positive internal change. Again, there is a difference between supporting and helping children so they can get the proper adaptations versus leveraging their entire lives in the name of comfort while they never change and grow hollow/stale.
 

As for the system, the US education system is built around the idea of paying for advantage.  Compare public schools in a poor area, to those in wealthy areas, to good private schools, to elite boarding schools.  It's crystal clear how things are meant to work. 

Do you really feel that was the original intent or is what we have now a corruption of it? I don't follow or accept how this corrupt ass **** is supposed to go down and I don't play along to get along. If other people want to bow down, that's there choice, but I can't do that and call myself a man. That's why I came to the realization that to be a con-man or a gangster is to be a **** and a follower and changed my life. Destroying and corrupting **** around you, just because others do it or because life is too hard and too painful and unfair is a **** ass excuse and a **** reason for living a certain way. I understand life is hard and sometimes hurting others or adding to corruption seems like a good choice to get ahead, but a person needs have their eyes open to what their doing and take responsibility for their weakness rather than try to excuse it and get off that path as soon as possible. 
 

Keep in mind that I'm not saying these parents should get away with it.  I think they deserve a criminal record and a steep fine.  I'd just prefer prison be reserved for criminals the public has an interests and getting off the streets.  We jail too many people as it is.  I don't see the need for parents that tried to bribe a corrupt college gatekeeper to end up in prison.   

If the parents don't get hit with consequences that impact and change their lives then they are getting away with it. A fine isn't going to do anything to bring about change and neither is a criminal record because most of them are already established and connected so they don't even have to worry about the same hiring process as normal people. Prison can be a great wake up call and a constructive experience if used properly and I'm speaking from experience. These rich mother****ers are the ones who need prison the most, they need to be pulled out of their comfort bubble and forced to experience real life so they can adapt and change. Their culture needs to feel and understand that they are not above the law, so they behave accordingly. And really the rich are the ones who are in the best position to go to jail for a bit and be okay after release and probation. They won't be homeless after jail or the ones who can't get work because of their record. I can't speak on what might happen in jail, but we all have to take those risks, from people stealing quarters from a laundry mat, to the dude selling weed in the cut, to rich ass parents bribing people for their worthless ass kids.

Again, the whole point of this isn't about feeding outrage. It's about setting up consequences that cause the right kinds of positive change, while inhibiting the escalation and perpetuation of destructive and corrupt behavior.

 

[China]

Georgetown University student facing expulsion over father's bribes files lawsuit

 

A Georgetown University student facing expulsion over his father's involvement in a college admissions bribery scheme is taking the school to court.

 

Adam Semprevivo filed a lawsuit Wednesday morning against the private university in Washington, D.C., demanding that a district court judge block the school from taking disciplinary action against him that could include revoking his earned academic credits and subjecting him to academic discipline after his father, California sales executive Stephen Semprevivo, admitted paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to get him accepted.

 

Stephen Semprevivo had hired a college admissions consultant, William "Rick" Singer, to help with his son's applications several years ago. But Adam Semprevivo, who just completed his junior year at the university, alleges that his father, without his knowledge, made an agreement with Singer "to take specific steps" to get him into Georgetown, according to the complaint.

 

Adam Semprevivo alleges in the lawsuit he was informed by Singer that Georgetown's then-tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, was a friend and would provide him a recommendation, when in fact Ernst used one of his assigned admission slots as if he was recruiting Adam Semprevivo to play tennis for the university.

 

Singer also wrote Adam Semprevivo's admissions essay, which contained "falsified information" that "solely discussed Adam's love for tennis," and submitted his application into Georgetown, typing in Adam Semprevivo's name in the signature block. Yet high school transcripts, which were supplied to Georgetown, "made no reference to Adam ever having played tennis," according to the complaint.

 

"Despite the fact that these misrepresentations could have been easily verified and debunked before Georgetown formally admitted Semprevivo in April 2016, no one at Georgetown did so," the complaint states. "From 2017 until April 3, 2019, no one from Georgetown questioned Semprevivo, met with Semprevivo, sought an explanation from Semprevivo, or attempted to discipline Semprevivo in relation to issues concerning his admission."

 

Adam Semprevivo claims in the lawsuit that his acceptance into Georgetown "was not conditioned on playing or participating on the tennis team," and that his SAT score and high school GPA, for which he "received no assistance from Singer with either," were both within the university's academic standards.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[twa]

Lori gets 40 years????

 

This world is crazy.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by twa

[tshile]

It’s common practice to throw every charge at someone in an attempt to get them to plea down. Also, you don’t know what you will get actual convictions on. Everyone knows this. Yet the talking heads  always just add up the charges. 

 

Yes if she fights and is found guilt theres a potential for 40 years. Does anyone actually think she’ll be sentenced to 40 years? Come on. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

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[Destino]

The nation can sleep more soundly now that these dangerous criminals are off the streets. 

 

Community service would have been better IMO.  Make these rich folks spend 16 hours every weekend for a year cleaning up parks and streets in orange jumpsuits.  We put too many people in prison already.   

[China]

46 minutes ago, Destino said:

The nation can sleep more soundly now that these dangerous criminals are off the streets. 

 

Community service would have been better IMO.  Make these rich folks spend 16 hours every weekend for a year cleaning up parks and streets in orange jumpsuits.  We put too many people in prison already.   

 

Orange jumpsuits you say?

 

The college admissions scandal now has a sexy Halloween costume

 

[tshile]

1 hour ago, Destino said:

The nation can sleep more soundly now that these dangerous criminals are off the streets. 

 

Community service would have been better IMO.  Make these rich folks spend 16 hours every weekend for a year cleaning up parks and streets in orange jumpsuits.  We put too many people in prison already.   

Weren’t you and i championing the idea that execs that do things like what we see in the opioid issue should go to jail? That fining them isn’t a real punishment?

 

This seems like an extension of that to me. Community service and a fine? No. 1 month in county and a fine. 

[Destino]

13 minutes ago, tshile said:

Weren’t you and i championing the idea that execs that do things like what we see in the opioid issue should go to jail? That fining them isn’t a real punishment?

 

This seems like an extension of that to me. Community service and a fine? No. 1 month in county and a fine. 

 

A few things.

1- Creating and then worsening a drug epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives and ruined thousands more is not comparable to bribing your kids way into school.  Neither is illegally pumping poison into the water supply or something similar.  (Not saying you said it was, I'm just stating it for clarity)

2- It was not just that fines were insufficient, it was that fining companies while the execs ran out the back door with their ill-gotten gains failed to adequately counter incentives.  The people who actually did the bad things must be held personally responsible.   

3- if I was independently wealthy and famous a month catching up on my reading list in the clink would be more tolerable and less disruptive than the public shaming of picking up trash for two 8 hour days a week for a year.  I admit this is subjective.

[PleaseBlitz]

Community service for rich people is not picking up trash on the side of the road.  It's them picking a "cause" that they now all of a sudden care about and helping the less fortunate in some worthless but conspicuous way.  That ends up helping to rehabilitate their image. "Oh, look at Aunt Becky spending time with young single moms, she even claims to have formed a real friendship with some.  Awwww."  They also get to go home and sleep in their own bed and pretty much maintain their very posh lifestyle.  

 

Subjectively, I think the loss of your actual freedom for 2 weeks or 2 months, where you don't maintain your lifestyle, you sleep on a concrete slab with a 3 inch thick mattress on it, are cut off from your family and friends, and probably have some fear for your personal safety (even assuming you are in jail, not prison) is going to impact a person far more and stick with them far longer.  

[No Excuses]

I think the sentences so far haven’t been harsh enough. White collar crimes of this sort are deeply damaging to trust and public confidence in institutions. 

 

I get the inclination not to over-incarcerate but people who abuse institutions and erode public trust need to be dealt with in far stricter terms than they currently are. You don’t get the deeply paranoid and conspiratorial society that we currently are without a portion of very wealthy individuals not giving a damn about what their actions do to society at large and acting in purely their own selfish interest.

 

A few weeks in jail isn’t enough. There should be year long sentences and severe financial penalties in such cases. 

[China]

A winemaker was sentenced to five months in prison in the college admissions scam

 

A former Napa Valley vineyard owner was sentenced to five months in prison on Friday for his role in the national college admissions scam.

 

Agustin Huneeus Jr., the fifth parent sentenced in the scam, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit fraud.

His five-month prison sentence is the longest so far for a parent in the scandal, eclipsing an earlier sentence of four months. In addition, he was fined $100,000 and will have to serve 500 hours of community service, according to a news release from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Huneeus was the first to be sanctioned for participating in both the test-cheating and athlete-recruiting schemes.

He admitted to paying $50,000 as part of a scheme to cheat on his daughter's SAT exam, court records show. He also admitted to paying $50,000 in bribes — and agreeing to pay a further $200,000 — to get her into the University of Southern California as a purported water polo recruit.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Corcaigh]

I think these clowns deserve everything they get, but the people who enabled by cheating on tests and taking bribes deserve much worse.

 

But it also highlights an issue that people with very average talent playing uncompetitive sports are getting an admissions advantage for the nation’s top schools.

[Destino]

10 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Community service for rich people is not picking up trash on the side of the road. 

Well, then we need a new law (or several? I'm no big city lawyer).  I’d like less people jailed, but more effective community service requirements.  As in the specifically assigned sort that can’t be worked around via supporting a cause.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Corcaigh said:

the people who enabled by cheating on tests and taking bribes deserve much worse.

Agreed.  They are the corrupt agents that betrayed their institutions.  Have they been punished yet?

[Cooked Crack]

 

I bet she's hella yoked after doing such a long bid.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

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[China]

Lori Loughlin and 13 other defendants move to dismiss charges in college admissions scandal

 

(CNN)Attorneys for parents in the college admissions scandal case, including Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, filed a collection of motions to the dismiss charges against them in Massachusetts federal court Wednesday.

 

One memo filed on behalf of 14 defendants including Loughlin and Giannulli argues that charges should be dismissed because the venue was chosen to "accommodate the government's venue preferences."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

Aunt Becky about to do time