Actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to paying college fixers thousands in order to have her children admitted into high-ranking institutions.
On Monday, the 56-year-old ”Desperate Housewives” actress pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to have wrong answers changed to correct ones on her daughter, #SofiaGraceMacy’s SAT exam, which gave the teen an extremely improved score from her PSAT results, prosecutors say. Last month, Huffman, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, according to court records, NBC reports.
Prosecutors are requesting that Huffman receive four months behind bars. According to NBC news, Huffman broke down in tears while explaining that she requested Sofia to receive extra time to take her test, saying the teen had been seeing a neuropsychologist since she was eight. “I just didn’t want to create the impression that the neuropsychologist had any involvement because she, like my daughter, didn’t have any knowledge of my actions, of what I had done,” Huffman said through tears. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen explained that the actress claims she doesn’t know all the names involved in the conspiracy. “Everything else that Mr. Rosen said I did, I did,” Huffman added.
Huffman is on the list with five parents who have been found guilty of the college admissions scheme. There are nine others who have agreed to plead guilty at a later date with prosecutors. “I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community,” Huffman said in a statement last month. She continued, “I want to apologize to them and, especially, I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.”
Some of the schools involved were Ivy Leagues and Division I schools such as Yale University, Stanford University, USC, Wake Forest University and Georgetown University, among others. Behind the entire plot was #WilliamRickSinger who used the parents’ money to boost their children’s test scores or pass them off as elite athletes.
