Hollywood actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among at least 40 people indicted in a nationwide college admissions bribery scam, according to court records which were unsealed in Boston.
Loughlin, of Full House, and Huffman, of Desperate Housewives, were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud.
In addition to Loughlin and Huffman, the accused also included coaches and administrators at schools including Wake Forest University, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California.
Loughlin’s husband, Mossimo Giannulli, is also named in the court documents. Huffman’s husband, William H. Macy, is not.
In the alleged scheme, parents would pay an admissions consultant, William Rick Singer, to bribe the coaches and administrators in order to help their kids get accepted into the schools to play sports regardless of whether they were athletes or not.
To make the admission look legit, prosecutors allege fake athletic profiles were also created to make the applicants look like strong athletes when they were not.
Also, authorities say the consulting company also bribed administrators to let a man take college entrance exams on behalf of students or replace their answers with his. The man was paid roughly $10,000 per test via money that was often funneled through a charity account, the indictment says.
The court documents allege Loughlin and Giannulli “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.”
In Huffman’s case, she and Macy allegedly made a “purported charitable contribution” of $15,000 to get one of their daughters into school.
Prosecutors say parents like Loughlin and Huffman paid Silver $25 million from 2011 through February of this year.
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