VANCOUVER businessman David Sidoo – along with actress Lori Loughlin, Gamel Abdelaziz, Diane Blake, Todd Blake, I-hsin “Joey” Chen, Elizabeth Henriquez, Manuel Henriquez, Douglas Hodge, Michelle Janavs, Elisabeth Kimmel, William Mcglashan, Marci Palatella, John Wilson, Homayoun Zadeh and Robert Zangrillo – formally submitted not guilty pleas in federal court in Boston on Monday morning in the college admissions scam, according to CNN.
As The VOICE reported on April 9, 16 parents involved in the college admissions scandal were charged in Boston in a second superseding indictment with conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to use bribery to cheat on college entrance exams and to facilitate their children’s admission to selective colleges and universities as purported athletic recruits.
The defendants, all of whom were arrested in March on a criminal complaint, are charged with conspiring with William “Rick” Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., and others, to bribe SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a test taker to secretly take college entrance exams in place of students, or to correct the students’ answers after they had taken the exam, and with bribing university athletic coaches and administrators to facilitate the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits.
The second superseding indictment also charged the defendants with conspiring to launder the bribes and other payments in furtherance of the fraud by funneling them through Singer’s purported charity and his for-profit corporation, as well as by transferring money into the United States, from outside the United States, for the purpose of promoting the fraud scheme.
Three parents—David Sidoo; Gregory Colburn and Amy Colburn – were previously indicted in connection with the scheme.
Case information, including the status of each defendant, charging documents and plea agreements are available here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme.