Wow, can you believe we’re in the second to last week of March? Time is flying! I hope you all are having a beautiful day and wishing you a beautiful week ahead! Have you heard about this college admissions scheme involving 50 people who basically took bribes from wealthy parents to get their children admitted into the top schools? Yup, this happened. Read on to find more about the case and what eventually happened.
Niki Williams is a 46-year-old former employee of the Houston Independent School District. She was one of 50 people who were arrested for being involved in a college admissions bribery scheme. Specifically, Williams was in charge of administering the college entrance exams at the public high school where she worked and she took bribes from the admissions consultant, Rick Singer, who was at the center of the scheme, in exchange for allowing someone to take exams in place of the children of Singer’s clients or to correct their answers.
Prosecution wanted Williams to be imprisoned for 6 months; however, the U.S. District Court Judge, Indira Talwani, said it will be punishment enough that Williams has lost her job and will carry a felony conviction. The judge further concluded, “Certainly [Williams] did this for the money, but this wasn’t any pattern of self-interest in any kind of a larger scale. This makes me see this as a bad mistake [Williams] made – a very bad mistake – but not something that would dictate that [Williams] would be likely to ever do something like this again.”
Williams was sentenced on December 21st and was also ordered to repay the $12,500 she got from the scheme. Others involved in the scheme include “Full House” actor, Lori Loughlin, and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli. Loughlin was sentenced to 2 months in prison, while Giannulli was sentenced to 5 months in prison. The couple admitted to paying half of a million dollars to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California.
Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly Vo. 49, No. 52
If You Were the Judge in this Case, What Punishment Would You Give?
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