Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters
The sweeping college admissions bribery case that saw 33 parents indicted for buying their children’s way into America’s elite universities reportedly started when federal authorities received a tip while pursuing a securities-fraud case last year. The Wall Street Journal reports that someone being probed in the fraud case last spring was “hoping for leniency” and offered up “another story of great interest.” That tip reportedly led investigators to former Yale women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith—who had allegedly worked with college-admissions consultant William Singer to get a girl admission to Yale by pretending she was a soccer player. According to the Journal, Meredith was later recorded by the FBI offering the same ruse to another family in April and subsequently started cooperating with the investigation. Feds then reportedly got permission to secretly tap Singer’s phone in June and recorded conversations with 16 of his clients. After a few months, Singer also started cooperating with the probe and even contacted his old clients to discuss their former transactions relating the the scheme. The investigation is still ongoing and could potentially “implicate more coaches and parents,” according to the report.