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Quienes ocultaron el plagio fueron los asistentes.

Quienes ocultaron el plagio fueron los asistentes.
The ones who hid the plagiarism were the assistants.
From Lesson 418:Emphasizing the subject (el que, quien)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Quienes ocultaron el plagio fueron los asistentes.

Why use this structure instead of just saying Los asistentes ocultaron el plagio?
This sentence structure is used for emphasis. By putting Quienes ocultaron el plagio at the beginning, we build anticipation and put a strong spotlight on los asistentes at the end. It translates closely to 'The ones who hid the plagiarism were...' instead of just 'The assistants hid...'.
Could I use los que instead of quienes at the beginning of this sentence?
Yes! You can perfectly say Los que ocultaron el plagio... here. Both work well for referring to people in this type of emphasis structure. Quienes sounds slightly more formal or journalistic, while los que is extremely common in everyday spoken Spanish.
Why is the verb ser conjugated as plural (fueron) here?
In this type of sentence, the verb ser needs to agree with the emphasized subject that comes after it. Since the emphasized subject is plural (los asistentes), we use the plural form fueron.
Do the two verbs (ocultaron and fueron) always have to be in the same tense?
Not necessarily. Here they are both in the preterite (simple past) because the action happened in the past and we are referring to that past event. However, you could use the present tense for ser to state a current fact, like Quienes ocultaron el plagio son los asistentes (The ones who hid the plagiarism are the assistants).

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