The Yale Dad Who Set Off the College-Admissions Scandal

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The Yale Dad Who Set Off the College-Admissions Scandal

By Jennifer Levitz and Melissa Korn
Updated March 14, 2019 4:32 p.m. ET

The tipster who led federal authorities to the biggest college-admissions scam they have ever prosecuted was Morrie Tobin, a Los Angeles financial executive who was being investigated in a securities fraud case, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Morrie Tobin, who tipped off authorities to the college admissions scandal.

Mr. Tobin was being questioned in an alleged pump-and-dump investment scheme—in which people conspire to inflate the price of a stock so they can sell it at a profit—when he offered a tip to federal authorities in an effort to obtain leniency, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Tobin, who attended Yale University, told investigators that the head women’s soccer coach at Yale had sought a bribe in return for getting his daughter into the Ivy League school, a person familiar with the investigation said.

That tip led investigators to unravel a wide-ranging scheme in which dozens of wealthy parents allegedly paid a college consultant to facilitate cheating on entrance exams and falsifying student athletic profiles. It also involved allegedly bribing coaches at schools including the University of Southern California, Georgetown University and Stanford University to take their children on as recruited athletes, a near guaranteed way of being accepted.

The College The College Admissions Scandal Plays Into These Two TrendsThe Justice Department charged 50 people with participating in a fraudulent scheme to get undeserving students into elite colleges. This scandal could have political implications. Photo: APMr. Tobin wasn’t charged in relation to the alleged college-admissions scheme. He is awaiting sentencing in the securities fraud case in which he signed a plea agreement in November.To help investigators catch Yale women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith, Mr. Tobin wore a wire to a meeting in a Boston hotel room with Mr. Meredith in April 2018, the person familiar with the matter said. At that meeting, Mr. Meredith said he could designate Mr. Tobin’s daughter as a recruit for the team in exchange for $450,000, this person said.Later that month, Mr. Meredith agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, authorities said.Prosecutors say Mr. Meredith worked with William Rick Singer, the college consultant at the center of the admissions cheating and bribery scheme, in January 2018. Mr. Meredith helped get the daughter of another California family into Yale by pretending she was a soccer player, according to prosecutors. That family paid Mr. Singer $1.2 million, according to the affidavit; Mr. Meredith’s share was $400,000. The family wasn’t identified.Mr. Meredith’s attorney didn’t respond to request for comment. He agreed to plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud in the case.Mr. Tobin, who used to live in Canada, has close ties to Yale. He attended the university in the 1980s, playing hockey for the school, before transferring to the University of Vermont. One daughter, Rachel, graduated from Yale in 2015, according to an alumni directory. Two of his other daughters are currently a senior and a junior there, respectively.<img decoding=

Dozens Charged in Scam to Cheat College Admissions Process

Federal prosecutors detailed a more than $25 million scam to help wealthy families bribe their way into elite colleges. The scheme allegedly involved bogus exam scores and falsified athletic achievements.

In the securities fraud case, Mr. Tobin and three others were charged in November, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC says they concealed from investors beginning in 2013 Mr. Tobin’s control of two public companies, Environmental Packaging Technologies Holdings Inc. and CURE Pharmaceutical Holding Corp.

Mr. Tobin then sold his shares without registering the sales with the SEC, without disclosing his stakes in the companies and without complying with SEC limitations on stock sales by company insiders, the complaint says.

Mr. Tobin’s stock was transferred to two offshore asset managers, who sold millions of dollars of his shares to investors, according to the SEC’s complaint. “What appeared to be ordinary trading by unaffiliated investors was actually a massive dump of shares by a company insider and his team seeking to profit at the expense of defrauded investors,” the complaint says.

Mr. Tobin agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court in November. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Prosecutors are recommending penalties including the forfeiture of $4 million authorities said was obtained in the offenses and 36 months of supervised release.

Prosecutors said that amount is at the low end off the sentencing guidelines and reflects Mr. Tobin’s prompt acceptance of personal responsibility in the case, but the plea agreement doesn’t mention his role in exposing the college admissions fraud.

—Jim Oberman contributed to this article.

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  1. With all the press swirling around regarding the college admissions scandal, this part of the story seems not to have gotten much notice. Here we learn that Tobin himself attended Yale (played hockey) but apparently did not graduate, has one daughter that graduated from Yale (2015) and two daughters currently enrolled, one a junior and one a senior.

    A subsequent article reported that Tobin had allegedly participated in the admissions fraud, but did not indicate which of his daughters’ application(s) was involved. What a sorry, disgraceful mess.