Steven Cohen  |  June 3, 2020

Category: Education

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A federal judge in California has thrown out two class action lawsuits against William “Rick” Singer related to the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal after determining that the rejected college applicants were not impacted by the scheme.

The plaintiffs in the college applicants class action lawsuits claimed that as a result of the Varsity Blues scheme, unqualified students were accepted into highly selective universities, while other students who followed the rules were denied admission.

The Varsity Blues class action lawsuits maintain that the plaintiffs suffered economic harm because they paid application fees and ideological harm because they did not receive a fair and objective admissions process that they were promised.

However, according to U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila, “No plaintiff alleges that they applied for, were being considered for, or were denied an athletic spot…hence, even if the college admissions scheme occurred as plaintiffs’ claim, no plaintiff was particularly affected by the scheme.”

There were two college applicants’ class action lawsuits filed against Singer. Both employ the same arguments. The plaintiffs say that they spent between $55 and $100 to apply to such colleges such as UCLA, Stanford and Yale and as part of their application fees, they believed that they would receive fair consideration for admission to the colleges.

The plaintiffs claim they were damaged by the behavior of the defendants by paying admission fees without knowing that other college applicants were breaking the law.

In addition, the plaintiffs say each of the universities were negligent in failing to maintain proper protocols to guarantee the sanctity of the college admissions process. Also, each of the universities in the college applicants class action lawsuits took prospective students’ admission applications while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that the process was fair and free of fraud.

The plaintiffs claim that Singer was paid approximately $25 million by clients to bribe coaches and administrators to designate the clients’ children as recruited athletes, which is in violation of the duty of honest services.

One such scheme involves the admission of Sherry Gho into Yale. The college applicants’ class action lawsuit states that Singer agreed to be paid $1.2 million to facilitate the admission of Gho into the university. The plaintiffs claim that on Nov. 13, 2017, Singer sent a falsified athletic profile to the head coach of Yale’s women’s soccer team. The profile falsely described Cho as being the co-captain of a soccer club in California.

The plaintiffs go on to say that the coach of the soccer team took a bribe of $400,000 to mark her as a recruit for the soccer team, even though Gho had not played competitive soccer.

“Plaintiffs did not receive fair consideration and a fair merit-based application process because other applicants were admitted based on different criteria, i.e., whether they were willing to pay bribes,” the college applicants class action lawsuit goes on to say.

The college applicants’ also state that if the admission consideration services sold by the defendants were based on the same criteria, they would have not suffered damages and economic losses.

“Plaintiffs and members of the Class have been deprived of the amounts they paid for admission consideration sold to them by Defendants, requiring restitution,” the college applicants class action lawsuits say.

college applicants application rectedThe college applicants also claim that they have suffered an economic injury in fact and have lost money or property as a result of the unfair competition of the universities, namely, the application fees that were paid.

Common questions of law and fact in the Operation Varsity Blues class action lawsuits include: 1) whether the universities knew about the fraudulent scheme and failed to take action; 2) whether the universities were negligent in not discovering the fraudulent scheme of their employees; 3) whether the universities should have engaged in closer monitoring of its employees and individuals involved in the admissions process; and 4) what quality control mechanisms were in place to make sure that this type of conduct did not occur.

Class Members would have included: “All individuals who, between 2012 and 2018, applied to UCLA, USC, USD, Stanford University, U-Texas at Austin, Wake Forest University, Georgetown University, or Yale University, paid an undergraduate admission application fee to one or more of these universities, with respect to an undergraduate admission application that was rejected by the university.”

Did you pay application fees to universities that were involved in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Simon B. Paris, Patrick Howard and Charles J. Kocher of Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky PC, Daniel E. Gustafson, Raina C. Borrelli and Mickey L. Stevens of Gustafson Gluek PLLC, John F. Medler Jr. of the Medler Law Firm and Caleb Marker, David M. Cialkowski, Brian C. Gudmundson and Alia M. Abdi of Zimmerman Reed LLP.

The Operation Varsity Blues Class Action Lawsuits are Tamboura, et al. v. Singer, et al., Case No. 5:19-cv-03411, and Bendis, et al. v. Singer, et al., Case No. 5:19-cv-01405, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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