Mother Sues Parents Accused In College Admission Scandal For $500B
(CBSDFW.COM/CBS NEWS) - An irate mother is suing the parents, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, who were indicted in the college admissions scam, claiming damages of $500 billion. She alleges their actions deprived her son of a fair chance of acceptance at the elite colleges targeted in the scheme.
The lawsuit, reported earlier by Deadline.com, names the parents who were involved in the college admissions scam. The scheme involved dozens of wealthy individuals, including Bill McGlashan, formerly the CEO of a "social-impact" investment fund managed by private equity firm TPG, and Manuel Henriquez, who led financial firm Hercules Capital. Both McGlashan and Henriquez have been ousted from their positions following the scandal.
The parents allegedly paid up to millions of dollars to guarantee their children entry into elite schools such as Yale and Georgetown, relying on bribery and cheating on standardized tests to gain entry into the competitive colleges.
The bribery scandal also involved a men's tennis coach at the University of Texas at Austin. Coach Michael Center was dismissed from the university on Wednesday after campus leaders evaluated the national scandal. He was accused of accepting about $100,000 to pass a non-athletic student as a tennis recruit.
Athletics Director Chris Del Conte said in part: "It's a very difficult decision, and we are grateful for the years of service that he has provided, but winning with integrity will always be paramount at The University of Texas..."
Jennifer Kay Toy, a teacher who said she had been given "teacher of the year" awards while employed in the Oakland Unified School District and Pacifica Academy, said in the lawsuit that her son earned a 4.2 grade point average and applied to some of the colleges targeted by the scam.
Her son, Joshua, "did not make the cut for some undisclosed reason," she wrote in the lawsuit. "I'm now outraged and hurt because I feel that my son, my only child, was denied access to a college not because he failed to work and study hard enough but because wealthy individuals felt that it was ok to lie, cheat, steal and bribe their children's way into a good college."
It's at least the second lawsuit filed in response to the federal charges, with a group of students and their parents also filing a complaint this week against the University of Southern California, Yale University and other colleges involved in the scheme. Plaintiffs in that suit say students were denied a fair opportunity for admission due to the bribery and exam-fixing scandal, and are asking that students who paid an application fee to these colleges receive a refund.
As the scandal hit home in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott asked that all universities re-evaluate their admissions process. "It's important that every university to go back and re-evaluate, to study and to investigate their admissions processes, to make sure that nothing like this is happening or can happen," he said.