Several celebrities and colleges have been named in an admissions cheating scandal.
TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among several people police have now charged with paying off colleges to get their children into top universities in a huge college admissions scam operation. On Tuesday, more than 40 people were indicted for being a part of a scheme to allegedly have their children accepted in schools like Georgetown, Stanford, Wake Forest University, UCLA and Yale as recruited athletes, despite the child’s lack of athletic ability.
According to federal prosecutors in Boston, parents paid an admissions consultant $25 million from 2011 to February 2019 to bribe coaches and administrators into helping their kids get accepted. The consultant then passed the money onto an ACT or SAT administrator who helped boost the chances of the child getting into the college that they liked. In addition, the now-indicted celebs also made fake athletic profiles for their kids to make it seem as if they were athletically qualified even though many of the children weren’t involved in sports at all.
Now, Huffman of “Desperate Housewives” and Loughlin of “Full House” are facing charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, NBC News reported. According to ABC, Huffman and her husband William H.Macy allegedly made a “purported charitable contribution” of $15,000 to get their oldest daughter in school. Huffman also reportedly attempted to get their youngest daughter into school but later decided against it. The FBI says it has recorded phone calls with Huffman discussing the deals with a witness.
On Loughlin’s end, she and her husband “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC,” court documents said. Police have emails from Loughlin that corroborate the charges.
The New York Post reports the consulting firms are also accused of bribing administrators of college entrance exams to allow a Florida man to take the tests on behalf of students or replace their answers with his. A former Yale University Women’s soccer coach named coach Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith is also accused of accepting payments from parents of college applicants.
