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The nationwide college-entry cheating scandal revealed in court documents Tuesday involved many wealthy Bay Area families who allegedly paid to guarantee their kids’ entry to elite universities through a “side door” of falsified test scores and athletic recruitment.

Accused participants included the wife of a former San Francisco 49ers pro football player, a doctor, the president of a Woodside real estate firm, the founder of a San Francisco private equity firm, a San Mateo food entrepreneur and the San Francisco owner of a Napa Valley winery. In many cases their children were unaware of their efforts to cheat on their behalf in a caper the FBI code-named “Operation Varsity Blues.”

They join the likes of Hollywood celebrities like actresses Felicity Huffman, wife of William H. Macy known for her role on the television show “Desperate Housewives,” and Lori Loughlin, who appeared on “Full House,” according to court documents.

Charging documents unsealed in federal court revealed a scheme dating back to 2011 in which parents worked with a California man who allegedly set up a front charity to conceal bribes that paid for test cheating and falsified athletic recruitment.

That man, William Rick Singer of Sacramento and Long Beach, established for-profit college counseling and preparation company The Edge College & Career Network, LLC, also known as “The Key,” which incorporated in 2012. He also that year set up The Key Worldwide Foundation, a Newport Beach non-profit as a purported charity.

Court documents allege parent clients paid Singer a combined $25 million to bribe coaches and

university administrators to designate their children as recruited athletes, as well as between $15,000 and $75,000 per test to falsify scores on standardized exams.

Among the accusations outlined in the court documents related to parents from Northern California:

Todd and Diane Blake of Ross

Entrepreneur and investor Todd Blake and his wife, Diane, from the Marin County town of Ross, paid $200,000 to Key Worldwide Foundation and $50,000 to the University of Southern California Women’s Athletics department to get their daughter into that school.

Until 2018, Todd Blake was a trustee for nine years at the K-8 Ross School District, according to his Twitter account, where he also posted his excitement over his daughter’s enrollment at USC.

So very excited that my daughter Charlotte will be attending USC next year! #FightOn #trojanfamily pic.twitter.com/feLOyLgA9w — Todd Blake (@todd_toddblake) March 24, 2018

Diane Blake was a retail specialist and co-founder of Winston Retail Solutions who worked in the 1990s as director of retail marketing at Levi Strauss, according to her LinkedIn page. Todd and Diane did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Court documents allege that in early 2017, Diane Blake emailed Singer saying her daughter was interested in USC but the mother “assumed the school was ‘in the reach stretch category.'” The Key foundation allegedly falsified volleyball records for the girl, saying she had won several volleyball honors and played for a club team that had qualified for the junior nationals.

USC’s Senior Associate Athletic Director, Donna Heinel, allegedly used that to present the Blakes’ daughter as a volleyball recruit. The Blakes’ daughter is enrolled at USC but is not on the roster for the women’s volleyball team, according to the indictment. In a February call, Singer told Diane Blake that government officials were looking into student athlete records at USC.

“Yikes. Right,” Diane Blake said in reply, adding that her daughter “doesn’t even know, you know?” about the alleged caper to get her into USC.

Bill McGlashan of Mill Valley

Bill McGlashan, founder of TPG Growth, a prominent San Francisco private equity firm with investments in Airbnb, Uber and other companies, is a well-known proponent of ethical investing in Silicon Valley. He helped form The Rise Fund, which makes investments in social impact initiatives like wildlife protection in Botswana and rural microfinance systems in China.

Court papers allege McGlashan worked with Singer to fake the ACT results for his son — who cell phone records showed was in Marin County at the time he was supposedly taking the test in Los Angeles, according to the complaint. The boy received a score of 34 out of a possible 36, which he submitted last year in an application to Northeastern University in Boston.

McGlashan was allegedly caught in a recorded conversation discussing a similar scheme for his younger two children.

“Here’s the only question, does he know? Is there a way to do it in a way that he doesn’t know that happened?” McGlashan asked about his son. “Oh yeah,” Singer responded.

The two discussed using Photoshop to make a fake profile for his son as a football player in order to help him get into USC or Stanford.

“I’m gonna make him a kicker,” Singer said. “He does have really strong legs,” McGlashan responded, laughing. “Maybe he’ll become a kicker. You never know.”

Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez of Atherton

Manuel Henriquez of Atherton, founder and CEO of a publicly traded specialty finance company

based in Palo Alto, and his wife, Elizabeth are accused of participating in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on four separate occasions on behalf of their two daughters. In addition, they are accused of a scheme to bribe Georgetown University’s head tennis coach to designate their older daughter as a tennis recruit in order to facilitate her admission to the exclusive school.

The Henriquezes spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get two daughters into elite universities. Their girls both attended a “private college preparatory in Belmont.”

Through Singer, the Henriquezes paid $400,000 in May 2016 to bribe Georgetown University head tennis coach Gordie Ernst to accept their older daughter as a supposed recruit, the indictment says. While their daughter played tennis during her high school years, the Henriquezes allegedly fabricated that she was in the “Top 50” of the U.S. Tennis Association or that she played “club tennis” throughout high school.

“At her best, she appears to have ranked 207th in Northern California in the under-12 girls division, with an overall win/loss record of 2-8,” court documents noted.

Part of the scam included cheating on the SAT exam in 2015. Elizabeth Henriquez met with the proctor at 7:15 a.m outside the school.

“Unbeknownst to the school, he sat side-by-side with the daughter during the exam and provided her with answers to the exam questions, and after the exam, he ‘gloated’ with Henriquez and her daughter about the fact that they had cheated and gotten away with it,” court papers said.

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Two coaches hit with more charges in college admissions scandal The girl received a score of 1900 out of a possible 2400 — some 320 points higher than the best score she had legitimately earned. For that, the parents paid at least $25,000, according to court documents.

They participated in a similar scam the next year for their younger daughter, flying her to a “test site” in Houston for her ACT exam, according to the indictment.

The bribe fee was originally $75,000, but was waived when Manuel Henriquez promised to help one of Singer’s clients’ children get into Northeastern University, his alma mater, the indictment says.

Gregory and Amy Colburn of Palo Alto

Gregory and Amy Colburn, a married couple from Palo Alto, paid the Key foundation about $25,000 in cash and stock to help with their son’s college admission test. Gregory Colburn is a radiation oncologist who works at hospitals including O’Connor Hospital and VA Palo Alto Health Care System, according to the US News & World Report’s doctor database.

Court documents allege Singer had the Colburns’ son take the SAT last year at the West Hollywood Test Center where a co-conspirator was the supposed proctor, rather than at his Palo Alto high school.

In October, Singer placed a recorded call to Amy Colburn to tell her the IRS was auditing the Key foundation.

“Is that a problem,” she replied. “No,” Singer answered, adding that “I’m not going to mention to the IRS” that someone else took the test for her son.

The Colburns did not respond to a request for comment.

Marci Palatella of Hillsborough

Court papers allege Hillsborough resident Marci Palatella, the owner of a liquor distribution company and the wife of former 49ers player Lou Palatella, paid $475,000 to the Key foundation and $100,000 to a University of Southern California athletic director to get her son into the school.

The conspirators arranged to correct answers on her son’s SAT test and falsely presented him as a star football player, a “long snapper” and “defensive line” member who had played on several championship teams.

Palatella told the scammer in an email that she was willing to pay “money, for the right environment,” the indictment said. “But he can never know,” she added.

Palatella did not respond to a request for comment.

Bruce and Davina Isackson of Hillsborough

Court papers allege Bruce Isackson, the president of Woodside-based real estate company WP Investments, and his wife Davina participated in admission scams related to all three of their children. Bruce Isackson allegedly paid the Key foundation more than $500,000 in stock, including $250,000 in Facebook stock, according to a criminal complaint. The Isacksons allegedly portrayed their older daughter as a soccer recruit for UCLA, and cheated on the ACT test for their younger daughter and falsely painted her as a rowing recruit to get her into USC.

Last year, the couple was caught on wiretap discussing preparations to game the test results for their third child.

“You know, I am so paranoid… I don’t like talking about it on the phone, you know,” Bruce said in one conversation included in the indictment. “If they get into the meat and potatoes, is this gonna be… the front page story?” he worried in another call.

The couple did not respond to a request for comment.

Agustin Huneeus of San Francisco

Agustin Huneeus, whose family owns Napa’s Quintessa winery and heads the company’s wine portfolio, allegedly paid $50,000 to get his daughter into USC, ostensibly as a water polo player. The money would ultimately go as a bribe to USC’s Women’s Athletic Director Donna Heinel, according to the indictment.

“You understand,” Huneeus allegedly asked Singer in a recorded conversation, that his daughter “is not worthy to be on the team?” At another point, he says, “but I just want to confirm. She actually won’t really be part of the water polo team, right?”

“No, no,” Singer says. “She doesn’t have to do anything.”

At one point, Huneeus complained that the person who sat in the SAT exam in place of his daughter earned only 1380 out of a possible 1600, which was in the 96th percentile nationally.

“If you had wanted to,” he said in a recorded call to Singer, his daughter’s “score could have been 1550 right?”

“No,” Singer responded, “’cause I would have got investigated for sure based on her grades.”

Huneeus also “sought reassurance that his $50,000 payment to Heinel would be returned if his daughter was not admitted to USC,” the complaint states.

Peter Jan Sartorio of Menlo Park

Peter Jan Sartorio, a Menlo Park packaged food entrepreneur, allegedly participated in the cheating scheme by paying $15,000 in cash in June 2017 to have a fraudulent proctor oversee his daughter’s ACT exam and correct her answers at a West Hollywood test center.

Court papers alleged Sartorio’s daughter received a score of 27 out of a possible 36 on the ACT,

which placed her in about the 86th percentile. She had not previously taken

the ACT. Prosecutors noted the girl had previously earned scores of 900 and 960 out of a possible 1600 in successive administrations of the PSAT, which placed her between the 42nd and 51st percentile for her grade level.

Marjorie Klapper of Menlo Park

Marjorie Klapper, a Menlo Park jewelry business owner, is accused of paying the Key foundation

$15,000 in November 2017 to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her son.

In October 2017, court papers say, a phony proctor oversaw the ACT exam for Klapper’s son in West Hollywood. Her son received a score of 30 out of a possible 36. On Nov. 20, 2017, Klapper allegedly emailed a copy of the score report to Singer: “Omg. I guess he’s not testing again.” Singer reportedly replied, “Yep he is brilliant.”

In a recorded conversation between the two on Oct. 24, 2018, Singer tells Klapper he’s being audited and to make sure she doesn’t say anything about the money she paid going toward someone else taking the ACT for her son.

“You’re gonna say that the — the $15,000 that you paid to our foundation was to help underserved kids,” Singer tells her. “I just wanted to make sure that our stories were aligned.”

“OK,” she replied, “Got it.”

David Sidoo

A prominent investor, philanthropist and former football player from Vancouver, Canada, David Sidoo was charged in a separate indictment for paying $200,000 to have someone else take the SAT on behalf of his two sons in 2011 and 2012.

For his older son, the substitute test-taker was told “not to obtain too high a score,” because Sidoo’s older son had previously gotten a 1460. The new taker received a 1670 out of 2400. Sidoo also paid an undisclosed amount for someone to take that son’s Canadian high school graduation exam.

The older son was admitted to Chapman University in Orange, California. The younger enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.