Some graduates from the University of Southern California could see their degrees revoked in wake of the wide-reaching college cheating scam, according to a new report.
In all the cases, students allegedly fraudulently gained admission to the highly competitive school as athletic recruits with the help of admitted mastermind William “Rick” Singer, TMZ reported Friday.
One of the alums contacted USC himself to come clean that the application he used to get in was all a sham — and that he also cheated on his ACT test. The grad had received a scholarship to play football even though he didn’t meet the academic requirements for athletes.
USC doesn’t plan to take action against him, in part because he “self-reported,” TMZ said.
USC has hired an outside auditing agency and is expected to resolve the bogus admissions cases in two to three weeks.
The university is in the process of interviewing other athletic staffers. It is also working with other schools ensnared in the scam, as well as the FBI and federal prosecutors.
The feds have said none of the schools involved — including Georgetown, Yale, Wake Forest and UCLA — were aware of Singer’s bribery scheme.
Former “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion-designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to Singer to get their two daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose, into USC as competitive rowing recruits. Neither girl was an athlete, prosecutors said.
Both daughters have withdrawn from the school and could face a lifetime ban from the campus.
A USC source also told TMZ that one student has been suicidal after news of the scandal broke last week. The young woman’s parents enlisted Singer’s help to get her admitted into USC — though the university investigated and found that his services were legitimate.
The student is now receiving counseling.