美曝出名校入学舞弊案 多位好莱坞明星和社会名流涉案

你以为只有中国的父母才为孩子的成绩操碎心？外国的家长也同样为了子女的入学问题想尽办法甚至铤而走险，这其中就包括我们熟知的“绝望主妇”菲丽西提·霍夫曼，为了让孩子进名牌大学，不惜在入学考试中舞弊，结果事发被捕。

这桩入学欺诈案牵涉多位好莱坞明星和社会名流，出动了200名联邦调查局特工，涉案大学包括斯坦福、耶鲁等美国名校，作案手段包括贿赂、替考、作弊等。

US federal prosecutors have charged Hollywood actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with almost 50 other people, over a $25m scheme to help wealthy Americans buy their children’s way into elite universities including Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Southern California.

美国联邦检察官起诉好莱坞演员菲丽西提·霍夫曼和洛瑞·洛夫林及其他近50人参与一起欺诈骗局，用贿赂的手段帮助他们这些富有美国人的子女进入耶鲁、乔治城、斯坦福和南加州等顶尖大学，涉案金额达2500万美元（1.68亿元人民币）。

Huffman appeared in court in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, where a magistrate judge said she could be released on a $250,000 bond. The judge ordered the Desperate Housewives star to restrict her travel to the continental United States. Huffman’s husband, actor William H Macy, attended his wife’s initial court appearance. He has not been charged and authorities have not said why.

12日下午，曾主演《绝望主妇》的霍夫曼在洛杉矶的法庭露面，一名当地法官称只要交足25万美元的保释金就可以释放。法官命令霍夫曼只能在美国大陆的范围内活动。她的丈夫、演员威廉·H·梅西出席了妻子的首次庭审。他没有被起诉，当局也没有说明原因。

Two hundred FBI agents were involved in the investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”, which exposed how parents bribed college coaches and insiders at testing centers to get their children into some of the most elite schools in the country, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

联邦检察官12日称，200名联邦调查局特工参与了这次名为“校园蓝调行动”的调查，调查揭露了父母们为了让子女进入美国最顶尖的大学是如何贿赂大学教练和考试中心的内部人员的。

William “Rick” Singer, 58, was charged by federal prosecutors in Boston with running the racketeering scheme through his Edge College & Career Network, which served a roster of clients including chief executives and Hollywood actors.

联邦检察官在波士顿指控现年58岁的威廉·里克·辛格通过他的“边际学院和职业网”实施欺诈骗局，这个网站所服务的客户包括多位公司总监和好莱坞演员。

racketeering[,ræki'tiəriŋ]: n. 敲诈勒索；诈骗

Thirty-three parents, including Huffman and Loughlin, were charged, as well as 13 college sports coaches and associates of Singer’s business. Dozens, including Huffman, were arrested by midday in what authorities called a “conspiracy nationwide in scope”.

包括霍夫曼和洛夫林在内的33名父母以及13名大学体育教练和辛格的合伙人被起诉。包括霍夫曼在内的几十人因参与当局所称的“全国范围的合谋”而在案发当天正午前被捕。

"These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for the district of Massachusetts, said in a press conference on Tuesday morning. “Based on the charges unsealed today, all of them knowingly conspired with Singer and others to … buy their children’s admission to elite schools through fraud.”

美国麻省地区的检察官安德鲁·莱令在12日早上的新闻发布会上说：“这些父母都是富豪权贵。基于今日提出的指控，所有这些人都是在知情的情况下与辛格等人合谋，通过贿赂等欺诈手段让孩子进入名校。”

Lelling said the parents included CEOs, successful securities and real estate traders, a fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm.

莱令说，这些父母包括首席执行官、成功的证券和地产经纪人、时装设计师和国际律师事务所的联合主席。

Parents spent anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5m to guarantee their children’s admission, officials said.

官员称，为了保证子女进入名校，这些父母花费的钱从20万美元到650万美元不等。

Huffman and Macy are accused of making a $15,000 payment disguised as a charitable donation as part of a scheme to allow their daughter to take part in the college entrance-exam cheating scam. Macy is not named in the filings and has not been indicted.

霍夫曼和梅西被控将1.5万美元贿赂包装成慈善捐款，从而让女儿可以在大学入学考试中作弊。梅西的名字没有出现在卷宗里，也没有被起诉。

According to charging documents, Singer’s operation arranged for examiners to take college admissions exams in place of his clients’ children, advise them of correct answers, or change their test answers after they had been completed. Lelling said that in cases where the test was being administered for the second time, scores were raised in a calculated way so as not to raise suspicion.

起诉书显示，辛格安排“枪手”在大学入学考试中为客户的子女替考、提供正确答案或在答题结束后给他们改答案。莱令说，在第二次对试卷动手脚时，会在不让人生疑的前提下适当提高考试分数。

In the charging documents, prosecutors produced a handwriting sample a student was asked to submit so that a fraudulent test-taker could try to match it.

在起诉书中，检察官还提供了一名学生被要求提交的手写样本，这样“枪手”才能写出相仿的字迹。

In other cases, Singer allegedly conspired with college athletic coaches for applicants to be listed as recruited athletes, even if, as in several cases, they had never even played the sport in question. Pictures of students’ heads were even Photoshopped on to the bodies of athletes to create fake image profiles.

据称，辛格还和大学体育教练勾结，让一些考生以体育特长生的身份被录取，尽管这些考生可能根本不会这项运动。有些学生的头部甚至被P到运动员的身体上来伪造档案照片。

The coaches worked at such schools as Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles.

涉案教练供职于斯坦福大学、乔治城大学、维克森林大学、南加州大学、加利福尼亚大学、洛杉矶大学等高校。

In one exchange captured in the complaint, a parent is asked for a photo of his son “a little bit in action” so he could be photoshopped onto a football player in an attempt to be admitted at USC.

在起诉书中提到一段对话，一名家长被要求提交一张儿子“动起来”的照片，这样才能被P到一名足球运动员的照片上，以便被南加州大学录取。

"The way the world works these days is unbelievable,” the father replied, while agreeing to look for a suitable image.

“如今这个世界运作的方式真是让人难以置信。”这位父亲说道，并答应会去找合适的照片。

Former Yale women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith was among those caught up in the investigation, which prosecutors said took over a year to complete. Meredith is accused of accepting a $400,000 check from the family of a Yale applicant, and facilitating her admission to the university as part of the women’s soccer team, according to filings.

耶鲁大学前女子足球队教练鲁迪·梅雷迪思也是被调查的一员，检察官称花了一年多的时间才完成了这项调查。根据起诉书，梅雷迪思被控从申请上耶鲁大学的一名考生的家人那里收到了一张40万美元的支票，并帮助她作为女子足球员的一员进入了耶鲁大学。

Loughlin, who was charged along with her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, appeared in the ABC sitcom Full House, while Huffman starred in ABC’s Desperate Housewives. Both were charged with fraud and conspiracy.

曾出演美国广播公司的情景喜剧《欢乐满屋》的洛夫林和她的时装设计师丈夫莫西莫·贾奴里一同被起诉。霍夫曼主演的《绝望主妇》也同样出自美国广播公司。洛夫林和霍夫曼均被控欺诈和共谋罪。

Court papers said a cooperating witness met with Huffman and Macy at their Los Angeles home and explained to them that he “controlled” a testing center and could have somebody secretly change her daughter’s answers in a college entrance exam. The person told investigators that the couple agreed to the plan.

法庭文书称，一名合作证人曾与霍夫曼和梅西在他们洛杉矶的家中会面，并向他们解释自己“控制”了一个考试中心，可以安排让人在大学入学考试中偷偷给霍夫曼的女儿改答案。这个人告诉调查人员说，霍夫曼夫妇同意了这一计划。

Lelling said it “remains to be seen if we charge any students” and that the colleges themselves “are not considered co-conspirators”. Authorities said in many cases the teenagers were not aware of the fraud.

莱令说“尚未决定是否要起诉学生”，另外不会将这些大学“视为同谋者”。当局称，很多情况下，孩子们对欺诈行为都不知情。