03-12-2019, 03:28 PM
I wonder who blew the whistle and I wonder who has cooperated with the investigation. I don't know about these things, but that seemed like a very quick guilty plea from Vandemoer.
I expect the approaches to coaches were made subtly. The first approach might not sound fraudulent but maybe just out of line.
I'd guess someone initially started to participate, but then got wiser, and was in position to blow the whistle. Or maybe a parent blew the whistle after being asked if they wanted to be part of this.
The stuff about people taking tests for others reminded me of something I hadn't thought of for ages. While I was in maybe 10th grade and had good test scores, I had another athlete (not from my school) throw out something like "I don't suppose you'd take my SATs for me?". I took that as an off-the-cuff what-if thought that had no thought behind it. I could believe that person may have wanted it and may have needed it, but it was a totally not-in-this-universe idea to me which was immediately dismissed. The whole conversation was done in under a minute. But I never reported it to any adult.
It is a bit interesting that all the charges that I've seen involve US parents. I can't imagine that this form of fraud would be limited to parents in the US. Some sports have teams that have high percentages of foreign student-athletes. What's another potential candidate from a foreign country? The other country may not care too much about chasing a US fraud investigation, but the money transfers would be well tracked.
I expect the approaches to coaches were made subtly. The first approach might not sound fraudulent but maybe just out of line.
I'd guess someone initially started to participate, but then got wiser, and was in position to blow the whistle. Or maybe a parent blew the whistle after being asked if they wanted to be part of this.
The stuff about people taking tests for others reminded me of something I hadn't thought of for ages. While I was in maybe 10th grade and had good test scores, I had another athlete (not from my school) throw out something like "I don't suppose you'd take my SATs for me?". I took that as an off-the-cuff what-if thought that had no thought behind it. I could believe that person may have wanted it and may have needed it, but it was a totally not-in-this-universe idea to me which was immediately dismissed. The whole conversation was done in under a minute. But I never reported it to any adult.
It is a bit interesting that all the charges that I've seen involve US parents. I can't imagine that this form of fraud would be limited to parents in the US. Some sports have teams that have high percentages of foreign student-athletes. What's another potential candidate from a foreign country? The other country may not care too much about chasing a US fraud investigation, but the money transfers would be well tracked.