Proving that the parents were part of one conspiracy may be difficult for the government. To establish a conspiracy, prosecutors must show the defendants were part of a single agreement to engage in criminal conduct. It is not clear, though, that any of the parents even knew about the others. The fact that different colleges were involved may further undermine the government’s claim that there was a single agreement to violate the mail and wire fraud statutes and to engage in money laundering.

One type of conspiracy is known as a “chain” because different individuals are grouped together around a common purpose. In drug conspiracy cases, for example, the government can show that each member of the conspiracy, from the top-level importer to the street dealers, knew they were participating in a joint venture even if they were unaware of the identity of the other participants.

Another kind of conspiracy is described as a “hub and spoke” because one person plays a central role in dealing with different individuals engaged in the same type of misconduct. In Kotteakos v. United States, from 1946, the Supreme Court found that there were multiple conspiracies rather than a unified agreement to obtain loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration. The court explained that there was no connection between the borrowers because “without the rim of the wheel to enclose the spokes” there was not a single agreement to violate the law. Without a link to tie all the defendants into one agreement, the single conspiracy charge was improper.

One esteemed jurist, Judge Learned Hand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, pointed out how prosecutors sometimes overreached in bringing a conspiracy charge against multiple defendants. In 1940 in United States v. Falcone, he wrote that “so many prosecutors seek to sweep within the dragnet of conspiracy all those who have been associated in any degree whatever with the main offenders.”

The allegation in the college admissions case looks much more like a hub-and-spoke conspiracy. At the center, prosecutors say, was William Singer, whom The New York Times described as the Pied Piper of college admissions. But it is difficult to see what the “rim” is that can link these disparate parents into one agreement.