college admissions scam

Entertainment Executive Involved With College Admissions Scam Leaves Film Company He Founded

Bill McGlashan. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Operation Varsity Blues takes down another one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, STX Entertainment co-founder Bill McGlashan stepped down from the company’s board today following his indictment in the college admissions scandal. McGlashan is a managing partner at the private equity firm TPG Growth, which placed him on “administrative leave” yesterday citing “charges of personal misconduct.” (TPG also owns the massive talent agency CAA.)

According to the criminal complaint filed on Monday, McGlashan donated $50,000 to the college prep service run by William Rick Singer that is the heart of the racketeering case. In exchange for the money, Scott arranged for McGlashan’s son to take the ACT entrance exam at a facility controlled by Scott’s Key Worldwide Foundation. Someone involved with KWF would then make sure the boy’s test answers were corrected. The FBI also has recordings of phone conversations in which McGlashan talks about having a fraudulent athlete profile worked up for his son so he can be admitted to the University of Southern California as a recruit.

The two most famous people to be indicted in the scandal, Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman (whose husband, William H. Macy, was not charged), have both been arraigned in Los Angeles this week, and both are now free after posting bail. It is alleged that the dozens of people indicted in this case conspired to manipulate the admissions system on behalf of underperforming students so they could get into elite colleges and universities. Bribes ranged from a few thousand dollars up to $6 million, and the case spans activity from 2011 to 2019, stretching across six states.

The Admissions Scam Claims an Entertainment Executive