VANCOUVER — Somehow, former U.S. college tennis player Mark Riddell was allegedly able to walk into a Vancouver school on June 9, 2012, sit down and write a provincial exam posing as teenager Dylan Sidoo.
But which school allowed Riddell, who was 29 or 30 at the time, to take the exam is a mystery. How an adult was able to slip past exam supervisors and why his presence didn’t raise any alarms is, for now, unknown.
Ultimately, Riddell, now 36, found himself among 50 people charged in a far-reaching FBI investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy that sought to help privileged kids with middling grades gain admission to elite U.S. colleges.
Nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, including Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, are among those charged in the probe, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
Riddell allegedly conspired with William Rick Singer, who has admitted in taking in US$25 million in payments to facilitate fake test scores and bribe college officials between 2011 and 2018.
Riddell is named in an indictment unsealed Tuesday that alleges that Dylan’s father, David Sidoo — a Vancouver businessman, philanthropist and former CFL player — paid Riddell to write exams for his sons, including the SAT and a provincial exam in B.C.
Sidoo was arrested last week. He allegedly paid Singer US$100,000 to have Riddell secretly take the SAT in Vancouver in 2011 in place of Dylan, and paid another US$100,000 to have Riddell write the SAT for his younger son, Jordan, in California in 2012. Both times Singer allegedly paid for Riddell’s trips from Tampa, Fla.
And “on or about June 9, 2012, Riddell posed as Sidoo’s older son in order to secretly take the Canadian high school graduation exam in his place,” according to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
Sidoo has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Riddell has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest-services mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Dylan Sidoo would have written his “Canadian high school graduation exam” — a B.C. provincial exam — at St. George’s, a prestigious independent school he was attending in Vancouver. But St. George’s School said in an emailed statement that its records indicate “there were no school or provincial exams written at St. George’s School by the student in question on or around the date named in the indictment.”
According to the Ministry of Education, students in 2012 could have taken a makeup exam at any other school that had available space, just as they can in 2019. But the ministry hasn’t kept a list of when and where exams were held on June 9, 2012, a spokesman said.
The indictment also alleges that in or around September 2011, Sidoo emailed copies of Dylan’s driver’s licence and student ID card to Riddell so he could create a fake ID card. Riddell then allegedly used the fake ID to pose as Dylan Sidoo a few months later and take the SAT in his place in Vancouver.
But Riddell, who was suspended this week from his position as director of college entrance-exam preparation at IMG Academy in Florida, wouldn’t have needed to flash a fake ID to write Sidoo’s provincial exam. According to the Ministry of Education, students didn’t need to show ID to write the exam in 2012. That policy changed in 2014 and school administrations must now ensure the ID is valid.
“Any student who cannot identify themselves in a satisfactory way would be refused entry into an exam room,” according to the ministry.
