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美国名牌大学招生丑闻:富人把孩子“买”进常春藤

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周二,威廉·辛格出现在波士顿的约翰·约瑟夫·莫克利联邦法院。

周二,联邦检察官对50人提出指控,他们涉嫌参与通过行贿“购买”耶鲁、斯坦福及其它名校新生入学资格的无耻骗局。 STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A teenage girl who did not play soccer magically became a star soccer recruit at Yale. Cost to her parents: $1.2 million.

一个不会踢足球的女孩神奇地作为明星球员被耶鲁大学征募。她父母的花费:120万美元。

A high school boy eager to enroll at the University of Southern California was falsely deemed to have a learning disability so he could take his standardized test with a complicit proctor who would make sure he got the right score. Cost to his parents: at least $50,000.

一名渴望进入南加州大学(University of Southern California)的高中男孩被不实认定为学习障碍,以便他可以在串通好的监考员陪同下参加标准化测试,后者将确保他分数达标。他父母的花费:5万美元。

A student with no experience rowing won a spot on the U.S.C. crew team after a photograph of another person in a boat was submitted as evidence of her prowess. Her parents wired $200,000 into a special account.

一名没有赛艇经验的学生成为南加大赛艇校队成员,此前别人在船上的照片被提交上去证明她的专长。她的父母给一个特殊账户汇入了20万美元。

In a major college admissions scandal that laid bare the elaborate lengths some wealthy parents will go to get their children into competitive American universities, federal prosecutors charged 50 people on Tuesday in a brazen scheme to buy spots in the freshman classes at Yale, Stanford and other big name schools.

在一场重大高校招生丑闻中,联邦检察官周二对50人提出指控,他们涉嫌参与通过行贿“购买”耶鲁、斯坦福及其它名校新生入学资格的无耻骗局。丑闻揭露出,一些富人家长为让孩子进入有竞争力的美国名校可以如何不择手段。

Thirty-three well-heeled parents were charged in the case, including Hollywood celebrities and prominent business leaders, and prosecutors said there could be additional indictments to come.

33名富有的父母在该案中被指控,包括好莱坞明星和著名商界领袖,检察官表示还会有进一步的起诉。

Also implicated were top college athletic coaches, who were accused of accepting millions of dollars to help admit undeserving students to a wide variety of colleges, from the University of Texas at Austin to Wake Forest and Georgetown, by suggesting they were top athletes.

从德州大学奥斯汀分校(University of Texas at Austin)到维克森林(Wake Forest)再到乔治城(Georgetown),牵连其中的还有顶尖高校的体育教练,他们被控收受数百万美元,将不具资格的学生认定为高水平运动员,以便将他们录取。

The parents included the television star Lori Loughlin and her husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli; the actress Felicity Huffman; and William E. McGlashan Jr., a partner at the private equity firm TPG, officials said.

官员表示,涉案家长包括电视明星罗莉·洛夫林(Lori Loughlin)和丈夫、服装设计师莫辛莫·贾恩鲁里(Mossimo Giannulli)、演员菲丽赛迪·霍夫曼(Felicity Huffman)以及私募股权公司太平洋投资集团(TPG)合伙人小威廉·E·麦格拉申(William E. McGlashan Jr.)。

The scheme unveiled Tuesday was stunning in its breadth and audacity. It was the Justice Department’s largest ever college admissions prosecution, a sprawling investigation that involved 200 agents nationwide and resulted in charges against 50 people in six states.

周二披露的这一骗局牵连之广、行事之大胆甚为惊人。作为司法部有史以来最大的高校招生诉讼,这项大规模的调查涉及全国200家代理机构,导致6州50人被控告。

The charges also underscored how college admissions have become so cutthroat and competitive that some have sought to break the rules. The authorities say the parents of some of the nation’s wealthiest and most privileged students sought to buy spots for their children at top universities, not only cheating the system, but potentially cheating other hard-working students out of a chance at a college education.

这一波控告还突显出高校招生已变得如此残酷激烈,以致于一些人已寻求破坏规则。当局表示,全国最富有、最优越的一些学生家长寻求为孩子在顶尖高校“购买”席位,这不仅是作弊,还可能导致其他刻苦努力的学生失去接受大学教育的机会。

In many of the cases, prosecutors said, the students were not aware that their parents were doctoring their test scores and lying to get them into school. Federal prosecutors did not charge any students or universities with wrongdoing.

检察官称,在很多情况下,学生并不知道家长是通过篡改考试分数或撒谎让他们进的学校。联邦检察官没有控告任何学生或高校有不当之处。

“The parents are the prime movers of this fraud,” Andrew E. Lelling, the United States attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said Tuesday during a news conference. Mr. Lelling said that those parents used their wealth to create a separate and unfair admissions process for their children.

“家长是这起欺诈案的首要行动者,”美国马萨诸塞州联邦检察官安德鲁·E·莱林(Andrew E. Lelling)周二在新闻发布会上说。他说这些家长利用他们的财富为自己的孩子创造单独的、不公正的入学通道。

“The real victims in this case are the hardworking students” who were displaced in the admissions process by “far less qualified students and their families who simply bought their way in,” Mr. Lelling said.

“该案真正的受害者是刻苦努力的学生们”,他们被“资质远不如他们、由家人用金钱开道的学生”在录取过程中挤占了位置,莱林说。

At the center of the sweeping financial crime and fraud case was William Singer, the founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key.

这起庞大财务犯罪和诈骗案的中心人物是威廉·辛格(William Singer),他是又称“钥匙”(The Key)的大学升学机构边缘大学与职业网络(Edge College & Career Network)的创始人。

The authorities said Mr. Singer used The Key and its nonprofit arm, Key Worldwide Foundation, which is based in Newport Beach, Calif., to help students cheat on their standardized tests, and to pay bribes to the coaches who could get them into college with fake athletic credentials.

当局称辛格利用“钥匙”及其位于加州纽波特海滩的非盈利分支机构“钥匙全球基金会”(Key Worldwide Foundation),帮助学生在标准化考试中作弊,并贿赂体育教练,后者能让学生以虚假的体育证书进入大学。

Mr. Singer used The Key as a front, allowing parents to funnel money into an account without having to pay any federal taxes.

辛格用“钥匙”做幌子,使家长们得以将资金转入账户而无需支付任何联邦税费。

Parents paid Mr. Singer about $25 million from 2011 until February 2019 to bribe coaches and university administrators to designate their children as recruited athletes, which effectively ensured their admission, according to the indictment.

起诉书称,从2011年到2019年2月,家长们向辛格支付了约2500万美元,用以行贿教练和大学行政人员,以将他们的孩子指定为体育特长生,有效确保他们的录取。

Mr. Singer appeared in federal court in Boston on Tuesday afternoon and pleaded guilty to counts of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice.

辛格于周二下午在波士顿联邦法院出庭,承认犯有共谋敲诈勒索罪、洗钱罪、共谋欺诈美国罪和妨碍司法公正罪。

Sitting very still and wearing a dark suit, he described how he arranged for students’ SAT and ACT results to be falsified by sending them to take the exams in Houston or Los Angeles, where he had bribed test administrators. He described the students as believing they were taking the tests legitimately, but said that his test proctor would correct their answers afterward. Mr. Singer said he would tell the proctor the score he wanted the student to get, and he would achieve that score exactly.

他身穿深色西装,一动不动地坐着,描述了自己如何就学生的SAT和ACT成绩作假——他把学生们送到休斯敦或洛杉矶参加考试,并贿赂那里的考试管理人员。他说,学生们认为自己的考试是合法的,但是监考老师会在考试结束后纠正他们的答案。辛格说,他会告诉监考者他希望学生得到的分数,他会准确地得到这个分数。

In his testimony, he referred to his bribery and money laundering schemes as “a side door” method of admission.

在证词中,他将自己的贿赂和洗钱体系称为“一道侧门”。

“If I can make the comparison, there is a front door of getting in where a student just does it on their own, and then there’s a back door where people go to institutional advancement and make large donations, but they’re not guaranteed in,” Mr. Singer said. “And then I created a side door that guaranteed families to get in. So that was what made it very attractive to so many families, is I created a guarantee.”

“如果打个比方,有一道正门是让学生通过自己的努力进去的,还有一道后门是让人们通过学校的募捐系统,捐一大笔钱,但这些都不能保证他们进得去,”他说。“然后我设计了一道侧门,向那些家庭保证他们都能进去。所以这对很多家庭来说非常有吸引力,因为我创造了一个保证。”

One of the prosecutors, Eric S. Rosen, said that Mr. Singer had in some cases falsified students’ ethnicities and other biographical details to take advantage of affirmative action.

检察官之一埃里克·S·罗森(Eric S. Rosen)说,辛格在一些案件中伪造了学生的种族和其他履历细节,以便利用平权行动。

Mr. Singer also described how, after he became a cooperating witness and was told by the prosecutors and the F.B.I. that he could not talk to anyone about the case, he tipped off several families that he was wired and warned them not to incriminate themselves in conversations with him.

辛格还描述了在他成为合作证人后,检察官和联邦调查局告诉他不能与任何人谈论这起案件,之后他向几个家庭透露自己被窃听了,并警告他们不要在同他谈话时自证其罪。

The judge set sentencing for June 19, and Mr. Singer was released on a $500,000 bond.

法官将判决日期定在6月19日,辛格以50万美元的保释金获释。

Most elite universities recruit student athletes and use different criteria to admit them, often with lower grades and standardized test scores than other students.

大多数精英大学都招收学生运动员,在这个过程中采用不同的录取标准,对这些学生的成绩和标准化考试分数要求往往低于其他学生。

Mr. Singer helped parents go to great lengths to falsely present their children as the sort of top-flight athletes that coaches would want to recruit.

辛格帮家长费尽心机把孩子伪造成教练希望招募的那种顶级运动员。

Mr. Singer fabricated athletic “profiles” of students to submit with their applications, which contained teams the students had not played on and honors they had not won. Some parents supplied “staged photographs of their children engaged in athletic activity,” according to the authorities; Mr. Singer’s associates also photoshopped the faces of the applicants onto images of athletes found on the internet.

辛格伪造学生的体育“简历”,连同入学申请一起提交,其中包括学生没有加入过的球队和他们从没获得过的荣誉。当局称,一些家长提供了“孩子参加体育活动的登场照片”;辛格的同事还把申请者的脸用电脑合成到网上找来的运动员照片上。

“This is an extreme, unsubtle and illegal example of the increasingly common practice of using money to get an edge in the race for a place in an elite university,” said Christopher Hunt, who runs College Essay Mentor, a consulting service for applicants.

“利用金钱在精英大学的入学竞争中获得优势的做法越来越普遍,本案就是一个极端的、公然的、非法的例子,”为申请者提供咨询服务的“大学入学导师”(College Essay Mentor)公司负责人克里斯托弗·亨特(Christopher Hunt)说。

数十人被控通过诈骗手段让学生入读顶级大学,包括南加州大学。 ROZETTE RAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
In one example detailed in an indictment, the parents of a student applying to Yale paid Mr. Singer $1.2 million to help her get admitted. The student, who did not play soccer, was described as the co-captain of a prominent club soccer team in Southern California in order to be recruited for the Yale women’s soccer team. The head coach of the Yale team, Rudolph Meredith, was bribed at least $400,000 to recruit the student.

在起诉书中详细描述的一个例子里,一名申请耶鲁大学的学生的父母向辛格支付了120万美元,帮助她被录取。这名学生从没有踢过足球,却被描述为南加州一个著名足球俱乐部的队长之一,以便被耶鲁大学女子足球队招募,辛格为此向耶鲁大学足球队的主教练鲁道夫·梅雷迪思(Rudolph Meredith)行贿至少40万美元。

After the profile was created, Mr. Singer sent the fake profile to Mr. Meredith, who then designated her as a recruit, even though he knew the student did not play competitive soccer, according to the complaint.

起诉书称,在创建该学生的个人简介后,辛格把这份假的简介发给了梅雷迪思,随后,梅雷迪思尽管明知该生无法参加足球竞技,还是指定她为招生对象。

In its investigation, known internally as Operation Varsity Blues, the government focused on the 33 indicted parents. Those parents were willing to pay between $15,000 and $75,000 per test, which went to college entrance exam administrators who helped their children cheat on them by giving them answers, correcting their work or even letting third parties falsely pose as their children and take the tests in their stead, according to the indictment.

在内部称之为“校队蓝调行动”(Operation Varsity Blues)的调查中,政府将重点放在了33名遭到起诉的家长身上。根据起诉书,这些父母为每项考试支付1.5万美元到7.5万美元不等的费用给入学考试负责人员,那些人帮他们的孩子作弊,向他们提供正确答案、修改他们的答案,甚至让他人冒名顶替参加考试。

Mr. Singer instructed at least one parent, Mr. McGlashan, to claim that his son had learning disabilities in order to gain extended time for him to take his college entrance exam alone, over two days instead of one, according to court documents.

法庭文件显示,辛格至少让其中一位家长麦格拉申声称自己的儿子有学习障碍,以便让他有更长时间独自考试,时间从一天延长到两天。

The government said that Mr. McGlashan’s son was told to take the exam at one of two test centers where Mr. Singer worked with test administrators who had been bribed to allow students to cheat. And Mr. Singer told Mr. McGlashan to fabricate a reason, such as a wedding, for why their children would need to take the test in one of those locations.

政府表示,麦格拉申的儿子被告知要在两个考试中心选一个参加考试,而辛格跟其中一个考试中心的管理人员有勾连,这些人收受贿赂,允许学生作弊。辛格让麦格拉申编造理由,比如要参加婚礼,来解释为什么他们的孩子只能在其中一个地方参加考试。

Mr. McGlashan’s son was unaware of the scheme, according to court documents.

根据法庭文件,麦克拉申的儿子不知道这个计划。

Mr. McGlashan did not respond to an email seeking comment. TPG said that it had placed Mr. McGlashan on indefinite administrative leave effective immediately as a result of the charges.

麦格拉申没有回复请求置评的邮件。德州太平洋集团表示已基于这些指控将麦格拉申无限期停职,立即生效。

刑事起诉书节选显示了一幅为取得大学录取资格而进行了篡改的照片。
When Mr. Singer explained the scheme last June to Gordon R. Caplan, co-chairman of the global law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Mr. Caplan laughed and said, “And it works?” according to a transcript of a recorded phone conversation between the two men captured in a court-authorized wiretap.

根据法庭授权的电话窃听记录,去年6月,辛格向国际律师事务所威尔基-法尔和加拉赫(Willkie Farr & Gallagher)的联席主席戈登·卡普兰(Gordon Caplan)解释有关计划时,卡普兰笑着说,“这能行吗?”

Mr. Singer told Mr. Caplan that his daughter would not know that her standardized test scores had been faked.

辛格告诉卡普兰,他的女儿不会知道她的标准化考试成绩是假的。

“Nobody knows what happens,” Mr. Singer said, according to the transcript of the call. “She feels great about herself. She got a test score, and now you’re actually capable for help getting into a school. Because the test score’s no longer an issue. Does that make sense?”

“没有人会知道,”根据那份电话窃听记录,辛格说。“她自我感觉很好。她考了个好成绩,现在你可以帮她进好学校了。因为考试成绩不再是个问题。听上去挺合理的吧?”

“That does,” Mr. Caplan said. According to prosecutors, Mr. Caplan paid $75,000 for the service.

“是的,”卡普兰说。检方称,卡普兰为这项服务支付了7.5万美元。

A spokeswoman for Mr. Caplan and Willkie Farr did not respond to an email seeking comment.

卡普兰和律所的发言人没有回复请求置评的邮件。

Universities were quick to respond to the charges on Tuesday. According to the indictment, Stanford University’s head sailing coach, John Vandemoer, took financial contributions to the sailing program from an intermediary in exchange for agreeing to recommend two prospective students for admission.

周二,各大学迅速对这些指控做出回应。起诉书称,斯坦福大学(Stanford University)帆船总教练约翰·范德默尔(John Vandemoer)从一个中间人那里收取了帆船项目的资助款,作为交换,他同意为两名学生做入学推荐。

Stanford said Tuesday that Mr. Vandemoer had been fired. The University of Texas at Austin released a statement Tuesday saying that its men’s tennis coach, Michael Center, has been placed on leave. And at U.S.C., Donna Heinel, a top athletic director, and Jovan Vavic, the men’s and women’s water polo coach, were terminated. Ms. Heinel received more than $1.3 million in bribes and Mr. Vavic about $250,000 according to federal prosecutors.

斯坦福周二表示,范德默尔已被解雇。德克萨斯大学奥斯丁分校(The University of Texas at Austin)周二发表声明,称该校的男子网球教练迈克尔·山特(Michael Center)已被安排休假。南加州大学的运动项目高管唐娜·海内尔(Donna Heinel)和男女水球队教练约万·瓦维奇(Jovan Vavic)已被解雇。据联邦检察官称,海内尔受贿130多万美元,瓦维奇受贿约25万美元。

In a letter to the college community, Wanda M. Austin, the interim president of the University of Southern California, said, “It is immensely disappointing that individuals would abuse their position at the university this way.”

南加大临时校长旺达·M·奥斯汀(Wanda M. Austin)在给全校的一封信中说,“个别人竟然会以这样的方式滥用自己在大学的职位,令人深感失望。”

Like other college administrators, Dr. Austin said she did not believe that admissions officers were aware of the scheme or took part in it, and she described the university as a victim.

与其他大学的管理人员一样,奥斯汀表示,她不相信招生官员知道或参与了这个计划,她把该校描述为受害者。

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