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Press Release

Former Houston Independent School District Employee Sentenced in College Admissions Case

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A former employee of the Houston Independent School District was sentenced today in connection with her involvement in a scheme to use bribery and fraud to facilitate cheating on the ACT and SAT exams.

Niki D. Williams, 46, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to one year of probation and ordered to pay forfeiture of $12,500. The government recommended a sentence of six months in prison and one year of supervised release. In September 2020, Williams pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and honest services wire fraud and mail fraud.

Williams administered the SAT and ACT exams at the public high school in Houston where she worked. In exchange for bribe payments directed to her by co-conspirators William “Rick” Singer and Martin Fox, and in violation of her duty of honest services to the ACT and the College Board, Williams allowed another co-conspirator, Mark Riddell, to secretly take ACT and SAT tests in place of the children of Singer’s clients or to replace their exam answers with his own corrected answers. Williams then returned the falsified exams to the ACT and College Board for scoring.

Singer, Riddell and Fox previously pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government’s investigation.

Case information, including the status of each defendant, charging documents and plea agreements are available here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Joleen Simpson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Mark Deckett, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie A. Wright, Kristen A. Kearney, Stephen E. Frank and Karin M. Bell of Lelling’s Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Updated December 21, 2020