BOSTON – Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and nine college coaches are among the 50 people charged Tuesday in what federal officials say is the nation’s…
BOSTON – Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and nine college coaches are among the 50 people charged Tuesday in what federal officials say is the nation’s largest-ever college admissions bribery case prosecuted by the Justice Department.
The Justice Department charged 33 affluent parents, including CEOs and television stars, with taking part in an elaborate conspiracy that involved cheating on the SAT and ACT and parents paying coaches «enormous sums» to accept students who fabricated their athletic credentials at elite universities and colleges.
Huffman, best known for her role on TV’s «Desperate Housewives,» is accused of paying $15,000 to a made-up charitable organization that then facilitated cheating for her daughter on the SATs. Huffman also discussed the scheme in a recorded phone call with a cooperating witness, according to the indictment.
Actress Loughlin, who starred in the 1990s sitcom «Full House,» is also facing the same felony charges — conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Prosecutors say Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, another defendant, paid bribes of $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as crew team recruits at the University of Southern California even though neither participated in the sport.
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As part of the sweeping nationwide conspiracy, coaches agreed to pretend that students applying to their school were highly recruited athletes when they didn’t even compete in that particular sport, prosecutors said.
More individuals, including additional parents, could be later charged amid the sweeping, still-ongoing multi-state investigation, which took on the code name «Operation Varsity Blues» by law enforcement when it was launched 10 months ago.
The schools, including Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, the University of Southern California, UCLA, the University of Texas and Wake Forest University, are not targets of the investigation, prosecutors said. And no students were charged. Authorities said in many cases the teenagers were not aware of the fraud.
Others charged included three people who organized the scams, two ACT and SAT exam administrators, one exam proctor, and one college administrator. Among the parents charged were Gordon Caplan of Greenwich, Connecticut, a co-chairman of an international law firm based in New York; Jane Buckingham, CEO of a boutique marketing company in Los Angeles; Gregory Abbott of New York, founder and chairman of a packaging company; and Manuel Henriquez, CEO of a finance company based in Palo Alto, California.
