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Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin among dozens charged in alleged college cheating scam

(CNN)Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among dozens of wealthy parents, elite college coaches and college prep executives accused of carrying out a nationwide fraud to get students into prestigious colleges, according to a massive federal indictment.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday the scheme had two major pieces. In the first part, parents allegedly paid a college prep organization to take the test on behalf of students or to correct their answers. Second, the organization allegedly bribed college coaches to help admit the students into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their actual abilities, prosecutors said.

The documents also allege that some defendants created fake athletic profiles for students to make them appear to be successful athletes.

In all, 50 people were charged in the criminal investigation that went by the name "Operation Varsity Blues." Those arrested include two SAT/ACT administrators, one exam proctor, nine coaches at elite schools, one college administrator and 33 parents, according to Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts.

The parents, Lelling said, were a "catalog of wealth and privilege," including actors, CEOs, a fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm.

"This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Lelling said. "There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy, and I'll add that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either."

He added, "For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected."

FBI Special Agent Joseph Bonavolonta said the parents spent anywhere from $200,000 to $6.5 million to guarantee admissions for their children.

Coaches from Yale, Stanford, the University of Southern California, Wake Forest and Georgetown, among others, are implicated in the case.

The extensive case -- the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted, attorneys said -- involved arrests in six states across the country. The criminal accusations stretch from 2011 to 2019.

Lelling said it was not an accident that no students were charged on Tuesday, and said the parents and other defendants were "the prime movers of this fraud." Still, he said they were considering charging students down the road.

Nate Silver
(@NateSilver538)
Betting line on which publication will be the first to publish an "in defense of Felicity Huffman" op-ed: Quillette: 3-2 New York Times: 2-1 Wall Street Journal: 4-1 The Atlantic: 7-1 Politico (i.e. @jackshafer): 10-1 Slate: 10-1 Reason: 15-1 Washington Post: 20-1 Vox: 30-1

Long Run wrote:

Nate Silver
(@NateSilver538)
Betting line on which publication will be the first to publish an "in defense of Felicity Huffman" op-ed: Quillette: 3-2 New York Times: 2-1 Wall Street Journal: 4-1 The Atlantic: 7-1 Politico (i.e. @jackshafer): 10-1 Slate: 10-1 Reason: 15-1 Washington Post: 20-1 Vox: 30-1

Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her role as Lynette Scavo on the ABC TV series Desperate Housewives. Huffman began her acting career in theatre and in the 1990s also had many supporting roles in film and television.

According to the indictment, Loughlin and her husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, paid $500,000 in bribes for their two teenage daughters to be designated as recruits to the University of Southern California's crew team — despite the fact that neither rowed crew

The key distinction [between a legal donation and a bribe] here is not just the amount of money, but the recipient. A donation is made to a college, while a bribe is paid to an employee who, in effect, is stealing an admissions slot, hawking it and pocketing the proceeds. (To comply with tax laws, donors also cannot engage in an explicit quid pro quo with a college. The well-rehearsed pas de deux of donations and admissions must be made to appear as a voluntary exchange of gifts, not a binding deal.)

MajGenl.Meade wrote:

According to the indictment, Loughlin and her husband, the fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, paid $500,000 in bribes for their two teenage daughters to be designated as recruits to the University of Southern California's crew team — despite the fact that neither rowed crew

Publicity oars?

MajGenl.Meade wrote:He's hiding in a motel outside Bismarck

This morning's TV news described coaches as awarding sports scholarships to children who had no athletic ability but only academic experience. Say what? That must have broken the coaches hearts to do a 180 like that!

ex-khobar Andy wrote:The is a good piece in today's NYT about how there has long been a perfectly legal way for the sons and daughters of the wealthy to get into select colleges. As they put it:

The key distinction [between a legal donation and a bribe] here is not just the amount of money, but the recipient. A donation is made to a college, while a bribe is paid to an employee who, in effect, is stealing an admissions slot, hawking it and pocketing the proceeds. (To comply with tax laws, donors also cannot engage in an explicit quid pro quo with a college. The well-rehearsed pas de deux of donations and admissions must be made to appear as a voluntary exchange of gifts, not a binding deal.)

The idea of this country (USA) as a meritocracy is long dead. It might have been so in the time of Lincoln - but the class system is alive and well.

Big RR wrote: As I recall, most highly selective colleges do not offer sports scholarships, but they do have spots reserved for the admission of athletes-this is true for the ivies, but may not be true for places like stanford.

ex-khobar Andy wrote:There is a good piece in today's NYT about how there has long been a perfectly legal way for the sons and daughters of the wealthy to get into select colleges... The idea of this country (USA) as a meritocracy is long dead. It might have been so in the time of Lincoln -- but the class system is alive and well.

Crackpot wrote:To be fair at my high school there was a 300 pound guy that lettered in track