• Singer paid $110,000 from one of the foundation’s accounts to the Stanford sailing program in exchange. In March 2019, John Vandemoer, Stanford University's head sailing coach for 11 years, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering for accepting bribes in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, to hold open admission spots at the university for three applicants falsely portrayed as competitive sailors, in exchange for $770,000 in payments to the sailing program. In the 2018-19 school year, the sailing team made 15 trips east of the Mississippi River. Singer and his co-conspirators then created a fake student-athlete profile that made the teenager seem like a competitive sailor. Organizers scrambled to find another venue, but attendees described the event as awkward, with Amerkhanian complaining that he was a victim of Stanford’s post-scandal vigilance. Symphony’s longtime piano star, dies at 69. Vice President Stanford. by: John A. Byrne on March 14, 2019 | 8 Comments Comments 24,164 Views. His children, John Jr. and Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, attended college and graduate school at Stanford. According to court filings by … Singer, who was known among Silicon Valley’s rich and well-connected parents, sought coaches at Stanford and the University of Southern California to join his scheme. • Third parties took classes instead of the actual students and earned grades for them. Other top rowing programs like Yale and Cal each spent around $675,000 in 2017, and the University of Washington spent $1.25 million. Vandemoer, who pleaded to conspiracy to commit racketeering, was the first to be sentenced: six months of home confinement for receiving more than $600,000 from Singer in exchange for designating applicants as sailing recruits. 1 dead after Capitol Corridor train collides with SUV in Oakland, Stanford apologizes after doctors protest vaccine plan that put frontline workers at back of line, Coronavirus live updates: Trump administration official apologizes for vaccine shortfall to states, ICU availability plummets to all-time low, as California goes into strict lockdown, Airbnb is defying Tahoe’s lockdown. The best-known case involved a student from China whose parents paid Singer $6.5 million. The modern Stanford Rowing and Sailing Center is located alongside Redwood Creek in Redwood City and was built in 2003 to replace older facilities. • The second student didn’t apply to Stanford, but Singer paid $160,000 from the foundation to the sailing program, and Vandemoer agreed it would serve as a “deposit” for another future student. When Vandemoer, wearing a navy suit and holding his wife’s hand, walked into a Boston courthouse for a sentencing hearing last month, the lawyers on both sides sparred over the extent of the damage done to Stanford’s reputation. HBS & Stanford MBAs Snared In College Admissions Scandal. • College coaches were bribed to designate students as athletic recruits, regardless of their ability to play the sport. 650-723-4323. Jordan went to Cal, and was on the rowing roster for at least one season before graduating in 2018. Stanford suspended him for three months and stripped him of his title as director of rowing during the 2010-11 school year, after a joint Pac-10 and Stanford investigation found violations of school policies, conference rules and abuse of authority, according to what the then-athletic director Bob Bowlsby told rowers at the time. The doors would not open. But the turmoil in these two modestly financed athletic programs, along with another pair of dismissals, has resulted in what has long been seen as the ultimate sin at Stanford — sullying the university’s reputation. Ms. Debra Lee Zumwalt. (AP Photo/Steven Senne). orders a travel quarantine for people arriving from outside the Bay Area, Robin Sutherland, S.F. According to Department of Education data on operating expenses, Stanford spent $182,000 on its sailing program in 2017 — more than any school other than Boston College, and nearly double what Yale and Georgetown spent. Stanford’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and provost, Persis Drell, vowed to review the applications Shirvell judged “to assure his assessments were sound.”. a student from China whose parents paid Singer $6.5 million. BOSTON — Stanford University's former sailing coach avoided significant prison time and was sentenced Wednesday to just one day behind bars for his role in a … “Did they change the locks again?” she said with an air of exasperation. schools won’t reopen in late January after teachers union, district fail to reach a deal, With cases surging, S.F. Stanford spent $182,000 on its sailing program in 2017 — more than any school other than Boston College. But Vandemoer said in an interview before his sentencing that his budget did not include equipment; his biggest fund-raising need was to replace a fleet of 18 sailboats — at a cost of about $120,000 — every five to eight years. According to court filings by prosecutors, here is how the case played out at Stanford, which has an undergraduate acceptance rate of just 4.3 percent: • In the fall of 2017, Vandemoer agreed to designate the child of one of Singer’s clients as a sailing team recruit in exchange for a payment to the team. If there’s not, let him go out in style.”. How politics can slice half an hour off Christmas lunch as families row but meals last longer if they agree on the issues of the day. Stanford University’s head sailing coach, John Vandemoer, agreed to plead guilty to a charge of racketeering conspiracy. Stanford takes out the brass knuckles if you dare speak up or out about their. The schools caught in the college admissions bribery scandal have so far mostly involved private universities like Stanford, USC, and Yale. But he said that “for any errors of judgment that I may have made at Stanford, I can sleep well at night knowing that I did everything in the best interest of the student-athletes.”. Stanford spent about $386,000 on its rowing programs in 2017 — down from a peak of $557,000. Noting how Amerkhanian’s firing was publicly described as a retirement, Stafford said: “I would call it cowardice. Veklerov studied economics at UC Berkeley and served as the editor-in-chief and president of The Daily Californian, the student newspaper. In college scandal, rowing was the ideal sport for stowaways, cheating Actress Lori Loughlin, center, with her daughters Bella, left, and Olivia Jade at … Though Stanford said its coaches do not have fund-raising benchmarks, the external pressures to finance these programs were touched on in letters supporting Vandemoer to the judge who sentenced him. Stanford is investigating the scope of the wrongdoing. It has acknowledged that Rick Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, had contacted other coaches at Stanford — Amerkhanian among them. In March, a week before the admissions scandal broke, James Shirvell, an admissions officer, was fired after the police charged him with the attempted murder of his girlfriend while under the influence of LSD. “You didn’t do anything that could tarnish Stanford’s name,” Jay Kehoe, a former head sailing coach, said. Billy Witz reported from Redwood City, Calif., and David W. Chen from Boston. Both Singer and Vandemore have pleaded guilty. John Vandemoer was sentenced in Boston federal court to six months of home detention and two years of supervised release. REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A Stanford sailor arrived at the university’s gleaming boathouse to clean out her locker at the end of the school year. The rowing teams don’t travel as frequently — or as far — but they have a major expense that the sailors do not. Bowlsby, now the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, declined to comment other than to say the discipline wasn’t connected to admissions. Caught Up in the College Admissions Scandal: Stanford’s Boathouse His firing, on April 18, surprised the Stanford rowing group, which have been making plans to honor him at a retirement barbeque on the boathouse 9 days later, to coincide with the yearly Large Row towards the College of California, Berkeley. But right now, what does the existence of such a scandal say about all of us? • The bribery payments were laundered through a bogus charity. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Since the scheme was revealed in March, federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against more than 50 people, including coaches, Hollywood actresses and prominent figures from the worlds of law and finance. He has pleaded not guilty to paying Singer at least $200,000 between 2011 and 2013 to hire a test administrator to take the SAT in place of each of his two sons and a Canadian high school graduation exam in place of his older son. For years, Amerkhanian and Vandemoer operated out of a contemporary boathouse on the edge of San Francisco Bay named for the developer John Arrillaga Sr., a former Stanford basketball player and one of the university’s largest benefactors. Caught Up in the College Admissions Scandal: Stanford’s Boathouse. She joined The Chronicle in 2015 as a crime and breaking news reporter. Rick Singer leaving federal court in Boston in March. Sidoo discussed the possibility that at least one son, Jordan, a coxswain in high school, be recruited to Stanford. How the alleged college admissions bribery worked at Stanford. Stanford MBA Bill McGlashan (top left) was a member of the GSB Advisory Council, Stanford MBA Robert Zangrillo (center top), Kellogg MBA Augustin F. Huneeus, Harvard MBA John B. Wilson, Harvard MBA Douglas M. Hodge (bottom right), … John Vandemoer, center, Stanford’s former sailing coach, leaving court in June. • Students submitted college applications with fake awards and athletic activities as well as fraudulent exam scores and grades. Chief Counsel . That Stanford is in this position is startling. A federal judge Wednesday spared Stanford’s disgraced former sailing coach from prison for his role in the massive college admissions bribery and cheating scandal … The university has reviewed email accounts, phone records and computers of coaches and athletic department staff. The Department of Justice included in their criminal complaint a transcript of a call they say took place between parent John B. Wilson, of Massachusetts and a cooperating witness in the college admissions bribery scandal, believed to be Willian Rick Singer, discussing payments to now-former Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer. The “side door” admissions conspiracy, which dates back to 2011, worked in several ways, according to the Justice Department: • Administrators of college entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT were bribed to allow third parties to pose as students or correct their answers after they had finished taking the tests. The defendants in the case include nine college coaches who are said to have received bribes, including Stanford University sailing coach John … Stanford's longtime sailing coach has been fired after he was charged, along with several Bay Area residents, in the largest college admissions cheating scam ever prosecuted in the United States. The university is also notoriously tight-lipped about personnel matters. The new revelations more than double the amount of money previously known that Stanford’s sailing program received in the scandal that has … If there’s really dirt, let it see the sunlight. Stanford’s boating troubles stem from the work of William Singer, the private college consultant who collected millions of dollars in payments from wealthy parents and paid college coaches and athletic administrators to designate non-athletes as recruits for admissions purposes at elite universities. “That was definitely the culture.”. Stanford suspended him for three months and stripped him of his title as director of rowing during the 2010-11 school year, after a joint Pac-10 and Stanford investigation found violations of school policies, conference rules and abuse of authority, according to what the then-athletic director Bob Bowlsby told rowers at the time. Former Stanford rowing coach John Vandemoer pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy on Tuesday as well. Few people were aware of why any of the coaches was dismissed. Stanford … Vandemore is believed to have helped two other students get into Stanford as part of the sailing team, both of whom were the children of Singer’s customers. Then, in April, Stanford abruptly fired two longtime coaches: Shannon Turley, who oversaw strength and conditioning for all varsity sports, and Amerkhanian, who had planned to retire in August, after his 19th season. Miranda, a university spokesman, said in a statement. Rowing for Stanford has given me the opportunity to compete at a level that I didn't think was possible, and introduced me to a group of girls that constantly inspire and support me in all aspects of my life. Now, hosts and guests are left scrambling to make awkward calls, S.F. It has hired the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to review how its athletes are recruited and how athletics-related gifts are accepted. If sailing requires mental and physical dexterity, reading the wind and the opponent, and moving decisively on a small boat, then Vandemoer, 41, was a fitting avatar: short, serious, hardworking and quiet, with dark sunglasses and a Red Sox cap typically pulled tight over his brow out on the water. They must transport their boats, which can run up to $80,000 for a carbon fiber shell, to races. He now lives at the vacation home of a Stanford benefactor and coaches privately, at a club run by his wife, just a few hundred yards from the Stanford boathouse. The federal complaint describes an incident in which a parent was offered a stand-in for their child to take an online course. A rowing coach was fired, but the university won’t say why. Read the full Justice Department filing here. The former Stanford University sailing coach charged in the massive "Varsity Blues" college entrance cheating scam avoided a prison term Wednesday when he became the first defendant in the nationwide scandal to be sentenced. A parent of two Stanford sailors noted that the team stayed at his house in Annapolis, Md., to save money. Upstairs, along with million-dollar views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Bair Island Ecological Reserve and the bay, are rowing machines, stationary bikes and weights, along with a kitchen, laundry room and offices. John Vandemoer, former head sailing coach at Stanford, arrives at federal court in Boston on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, where he was expected to plead guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. A Stanford Coach Ensnared by the College-Admissions Scandal: ‘The Biggest Mistake of My Life’ John Vandemoer, a former sailing coach, became part of … the first to be sentenced: six months of home confinement. Yusi Zhao is the second student from China to be implicated in the massive admissions scandal, though the money paid by her family is far higher than the $1.2 million paid by the Guo family to ensure their daughter Sherry’s admission into Yale University. Singer met Vandemoer in 2016, but several years before that he had asked Amerkhanian what he needed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Selma to Montgomery march with a 54-mile row. When Stanford was informed last week that multiple people had told The New York Times that Amerkhanian had been dismissed, it acknowledged he was given a choice — retire or be fired — for violating employee behavior policies. In March, when the sailing coach John Vandemoer was fired after being snared in a nationwide admissions scandal, the locks were changed at the Arrillaga Family Rowing and Sailing Center. Stanford's former sailing coach gets one day in prison for role in admissions scandal This article is more than 1 year old John Vandemoer admitted to agreeing to help students gain Stanford … Tall, lean and boisterous, Amerkhanian often used an air horn to get his rowers’ attention and leaned on Springsteen lyrics and historical references for inspiration, like commemorating the Rev. I feel so lucky to have stumbled upon the the sport of rowing and the community and experiences it has provided.” » Ellie Parker - 2015 All-American. These charges and the associated investigations will in the coming days surely say much about collegiate athletics, mechanisms of privilege, parental extremes and the overall value of a college education. In an interview, Turley, who had been praised for reducing injuries, especially among football players, declined to comment on his firing. It has a $26.5 billion endowment and prides itself on achieving athletic excellence without sacrificing integrity. “Stanford athletics is a really cold, calculating, bureaucratic organization,” said the Olympian Silas Stafford, a rower who graduated in 2008. On Wednesday, the Stanford sailing coach who pleaded guilty and was fired for his role in the massive, nationwide college admissions cheating scandal will become the first of … At least one parent indicted in the scandal, a Canadian businessman, also contacted Amerkhanian to discuss a recruiting spot for his son. “Stanford is strengthening its internal controls and processes in an effort to prevent something like this from happening again,” E.J. Stanford said the violations came to light this year, but refused to specify if they were spurred by the federal investigation or if they were gleaned from the scrubbing of computers and phones. “I have brought a cloud over Stanford, and for that I’m deeply ashamed.”, The sentencing capped a turbulent few months at Stanford. Kate Taylor contributed reporting, and Susan C. Beachy contributed research. Did ‘Kidnap Katie’ make up a tale of attempted kidnapping in Petaluma? But some former rowers and Stanford coaches said Amerkhanian could also be territorial, abrasive and a bully. One parent who approached the coach was David Sidoo, a Vancouver businessman. Conversely, rowing requires long levers, brute strength and fierce determination to push through searing pain on the water. Singer and others created another fake sailing profile. A lawyer for Sidoo, Martin G. 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