Senate Leaders Tell IRS to Investigate Charitable Gifts in College-Admissions Scandal

The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee urged the IRS Wednesday to investigate whether payments that parents made to a “sham” charity involved in the college-admissions scandal were improperly claimed as tax-deductible donations.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the panel, sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig saying the charity, the Key Worldwide Foundation, “apparently acted simply as a conduit for high-net-worth parents to pay bribes to college administrators for bogus college admissions.”

According to a federal indictment unsealed in Boston last month, officials at the Key Worldwide Foundation allegedly served as way station to funnel bribes from wealthy, well-connected parents to administrators of standardized tests and athletic coaches to boost their children’s chances of being accepted into the university of their choice.

Grassley and Wyden’s letter says the situation “appears to implicate further violations of the tax code, and we expect the IRS to be vigorous in enforcing the applicable tax laws.”