"More parents in admissions scandal appear in court in Boston" by Maria Cramer and Travis Andersen Globe Staff, March 29, 2019
William McGlashan Jr., a high-powered Silicon Valley investor accused of illegally scheming to get his son into college, had a request.
The magistrate judge had ordered that McGlashan, along with more than a dozen other wealthy parents implicated in the college admissions scandal, not leave the country except for business, but in Boston’s federal court Friday, McGlashan’s lawyer asked the judge to make an exception so McGlashan could go on a long-planned family vacation to Mexico.
Assistant US Attorney Eric Rosen was not sympathetic. McGlashan had other suitable vacation options within the United States, he said.
“He has a home in Big Sky, Mont., worth $12 million,” Rosen said. “He has a home in Truckee, Calif., that is also worth a lot of money.”
Rosen’s reference to McGlashan’s real estate portfolio was a pointed reminder of the extraordinary wealth enjoyed by the 15 parents who filed through the courthouse Friday for their initial appearances in the high-profile case that accuses them of trying to boost their children’s chances of getting into elite schools by paying fake test-takers or falsely certifying their children as top-level athletes.
They all stand accused of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for allegedly participating in a scheme to pay a college consultant, William “Rick Singer, to create fake profiles for their children as athletic recruits, facilitate cheating on SAT and ACT exams, or outright bribe college coaches.
McGlashan, 55, is accused of paying $50,000 to have his son’s ACT admission test score doctored and discussing another $250,000 payment to have a fake athletic profile created for submission to the University of Southern California.
He followed defendants like Elisabeth Kimmel, 54, who amassed a fortune of $325 million in 2017 when she sold a slew of television and radio stations her family once owned; Agustin Huneeus Jr., the 53-year-old owner of vineyards in Napa Valley; and Gamal Abdelaziz, 62, the former president and chief operating officer of Wynn Resorts Development. Abdelaziz, who is accused of paying Singer $300,000 to create a fake profile for his daughter to secure her admission to USC as a basketball recruit, played a key role in the development of a hotel and casino in Everett.
None of the defendants spoke to reporters after their proceedings in court, where they were told not to keep weapons in their homes, and to avoid marijuana use and talking about the case with any family members because they may be called as witnesses at trial.
The defendants showed little emotion in the courtroom and some defendants tried to downplay their wealth.
Other defendants who appeared Friday include: I-Hsin “Joey” Chen 64, of Newport Beach, Calif., who operates a warehousing provider for the shipping industry; Robert Flaxman, 62, of Laguna Beach, Calif., a real estate developer; Diane Blake, 55, of San Francisco, an executive at a retail merchandising firm, and her husband Todd Blake, 53, an entrepreneur and investor; Marjorie Klapper, 50, of Menlo Park, Calif., the co-owner of a jewelry business; Marci Palatella, 63, of Healdsburg, Calif., CEO of a liquor distribution company; Robert Zangrillo, 52, of Miami, founder and CEO of a private investment firm; Gregory Abbott, 68, a food and beverage packaging titan from Manhattan and Aspen, Colo., and his wife, Marcia Abbott, 59; and Stephen Semprevivo, an executive at Cydcor, a company in Agoura Hills, Calif., which provides outsourced sales services.....
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Related: Bono’s partner in ethical investing falls from grace in admissions scandal
Maybe they $hould ju$t auction them off, 'eh?
Also see:
"Former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst wants permission to travel throughout the country to look for work and care for elderly relatives while his case in the college admissions cheating scandal is pending. Lawyers for Ernst, a 52-year-old Cranston, R.I., native with homes in Chevy Chase, Md., and Falmouth, made the request Thursday in a brief motion in US District Court in Boston, where the veteran coach faces a racketeering conspiracy charge in connection with the high-profile case. While coaching at Georgetown over a period of several years, Ernst allegedly collected bribes totaling $2.7 million in exchange for designating “at least 12 applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play tennis competitively, thereby facilitating their admission to Georgetown,” court records show. He’s free on $200,000 unsecured bond and scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in Boston on Monday, according to legal filings. Ernst is one of 50 defendants charged in the scheme in which dozens of wealthy parents, including Hollywood stars and captains of industry, allegedly cut fat checks to have their children falsely certified as athletic recruits at prestigious schools, paving the way for their acceptance....."
Related:
Legal fees for ex-Georgetown coach charged in college scandal to exceed $250,000, lawyers say
Coach charged in college admissions scandal wants money unfrozen to pay for his legal defense
"Why a fan got just a 2-year ban after allegedly calling DeMarcus Cousins the n-word" by Adam Himmelsbach Globe Staff, March 29, 2019
The Celtics banned a fan from attending games at TD Garden through next season after Golden State center DeMarcus Cousins accused him of mouthing a racial epithet at him during the Warriors’ Jan. 26 game against the Celtics.
The fan is under 18 years old and he will also be under lifetime probation, and if he violates the terms of the two-year ban, he will receive a lifetime ban.
Yahoo! Sports initially reported the ban late Thursday night, and the Celtics had faced mounting criticism that the punishment did not appear especially severe, but the team was unable to corroborate Cousins’s account via interviews or film reviews, it said in a statement. A league source said the fan vehemently denied mouthing the racial epithet at Cousins, so the team did not feel it was appropriate to issue a lifetime ban.
The source said the fan sitting a few rows behind the Warriors’ bench was taunting Cousins during the game. At one point, the source said, Cousins saw the fan mouth the n-word at him and Warriors and TD Garden security were alerted.
The fan was removed from the arena, and the Celtics launched a multi-day investigation in which they interviewed fans who were sitting in that section and others in the bench area, and also reviewed all available video that could have shed light on the alleged incident.
No one corroborated Cousins’s claim, and while the video made it clear that the fan was speaking to Cousins during the game, the exact words were not clear.
Nevertheless, the Celtics took Cousins’s word.....
Just fighting $ocial inju$tice, right?
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Says he was drunk.
Time to find your happy place:
As housing crunch tightens, older women fight eviction from Kenmore Square rooming house
"Former state representative to lead tourism office" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, March 29, 2019
Keiko M. Orrall, a former lawmaker and leading Republican Party figure, has been tapped by Governor Charlie Baker’s administration to return to state government, this time to take over the state Office of Travel and Tourism.
Orrall, 51, started her new $124,248-a-year role this week, months after she gave up her legislative seat to launch an unsuccessful run for state treasurer last fall. A former schoolteacher, she replaces Francois-Laurent Nivaud, a veteran of the hospitality and tourism fields who led the office for three years.
The Baker administration announced Orrall’s hiring Friday afternoon amid a slate of other “senior leadership team” members now working under Mike Kennealy, the state’s housing and economic development secretary.
Orrall is a political ally of Baker, who backed the Lakeville Republican for GOP national committeewoman three years ago when Orrall ousted a more conservative incumbent. The first Asian-American woman to run for statewide office, Orrall later featured the governor in a campaign ad amid her unsuccessful challenge of incumbent state Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg.
At the time, Baker lauded Orrall for working with Democrats and Republicans to “ensure state government is focused on serving people — not playing politics.”
Orrall served for more than seven years in the Legislature. Her husband, Norman Orrall — a former Baker administration official himself — won her seat after she opted against trying for reelection in order to run for treasurer.....
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"Urgent care chain to pay $2m settlement in billing probe" by Liz Kowalczyk Globe Staff, March 29, 2019
CareWell Urgent Care, a fast-growing chain of walk-in clinics, will pay $2 million to settle allegations that it gave patients overly thorough exams and then billed government insurers for the unnecessary care.
The investigation by the Massachusetts and Rhode Island attorneys general and the US attorney in Boston was prompted by a whistle-blower complaint filed by a former CareWell nurse practitioner.
Aileen Cartier, who worked at several of the company’s locations for almost two years, said managers told staff to take medical histories and perform exams on patients that far exceeded what was needed for their simple ailments.
Her complaint laid out numerous examples of unnecessary care. For example, a 10-year-old might come in with sports-related finger pain, and be asked about sleep disturbances, chest pain, and fatigue, and get an exam including eyes, ears, nose, throat, neck, lungs, and abdomen. Providing more complex care allowed the company to bill payers more money, often $50 to $100 more than for a basic visit, the complaint said.
“Oftentimes when I do a full history and physical on patients they often appear to be confused and ask me why I’m examining things that have nothing to do with their injury or ailment,’’ Cartier wrote in an e-mail to a manager in October 2016, according to her complaint.
CareWell, which has 16 clinics in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island, said in a statement that it reached the settlement after “fully cooperating with the inquiry.’’
“Our top priority at CareWell is to provide safe and high-quality medical care to our patients,” said the statement from spokesperson Maria Kucinski.
According to a statement from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, the company began overbilling the Massachusetts Medicaid program and insurance plans for government employees run by the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission in 2013.....
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"After Cambridge man busted with illegal ammo, DA plans to look at gun show rules" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff, March 7, 2019
Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan plans to examine ways to bolster state law governing gun shows after a man who was allegedly drunk was arrested and charged with illegally purchasing ammunition at a show in Wilmington.
Brian Schwarztrauber, 54, of Cambridge — whose roommate told police he had spoken of going on a shooting spree — allegedly bought 150 rounds of 9 mm ammunition without a license at the Northeast Gun Show last Saturday.
Isn't that a Jewish name?
“It highlights the concerns we have with the gun shows,” Ryan said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
I'm smelling the powder of another agenda-pushing incident like at the basketball game above!
Ryan added that her office will be “looking across the law and regulations for gun shows and we’ll be having a legislative proposal to address” concerns about such shows in Massachusetts.
State law now does not require gun shows to conduct background checks on buyers, but vendors are supposed to check to see if a prospective buyer has a firearms identification card, Ryan said.
Schwarztrauber does not have a valid Massachusetts license to carry or an FID card, according to authorities.
Police believe Schwarztrauber was intoxicated at the gun show last Saturday. When officers arrived, he was being disruptive, refused to leave, and smelled of alcohol, according to authorities.]
Time to BAN BOOZE like they want to BAN GUNS!
His arrest followed a report made to Cambridge police by Schwarztrauber’s roommate that he had been “acting very strange lately and had made statements about going on shooting sprees,” according to a copy of a police report.
So what was it, a mind-control thing or was secretly being drugged?
The roommate also told police she had heard Schwarztrauber speak of wanting to start a civil war and a revolution, according to a police report.....
I hate to say it, but the whole thing stinks of a staged and scripted event contrived for the usual agenda pushing purpose -- an increasingly common occurrence in my pre$$.
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Related: Cambridge man arraigned on ammunition charge after allegedly threatening shooting spree
Time to get the word out:
"Many in Boston’s podcasting scene are taking the rising corporate interest as a good sign, one that could point toward new ways of making a living through audio production, but there’s also a fear that a rush for profits in the industry could eventually squeeze out all but the biggest stars....."
But it does “proves the value of the industry,” said Kerri Hoffman, chief executive of PRX, the Cambridge-based public media giant that distributes shows.
