United States government lawyers called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department. On March 12, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling announced that 50 people across the country had been charged in a $25-million plot to reportedly buy admission into top American colleges. Lelling said the plot was set up to guarantee admissions to top colleges for students, in his words, not on their merits, but through fraud. The colleges included top schools like Yale, Stanford and Georgetown University. Others were Wake Forest, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Los Angeles and many more. Lelling said the colleges themselves were not directly involved in the plot, however. The plot included cheating on college entrance exams, creating false athletic and school successes, and hiding payment as charitable donations to avoid paying taxes.
