Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were just charged in a huge college entrance exam cheating scandal. Forty other people were charged for trying to get their students accepted into top universities by cheating on exams and bribing college coaches recruiting. Remember the tortuous days of stressing over the Common App and studying for hours on end for the SATs and ACTs? Well, now there's a huge scandal rocking Hollywood involving Full House actress Lori Loughlin and Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman in which they allegedly cheated to get their kids admitted to top universities. According to NBC and The Hollywood Reporter, the scheme involved millions of dollars in bribes, getting some of the teens recruited as student athletes, and flat-out cheating on entrance exams. There's allegedly a man in California who runs a business funneling money to SAT or ACT administrators and college coaches to help students get accepted into their preferred college. Notably, it sounds like none of the kids knew that their parents had pulled some major strings to get them into school. Rough. Huffman and Loughlin were among 40 people charged with conspiracy to commit mail and honest services fraud. Huffman, who allegedly used the service for her eldest daughter and debated using it for her younger daughter, was just arrested and is reportedly in police custody. Apparently, there are FBI phone recordings with Huffman and a witness. Loughlin and her husband allegedly "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." Can you imagine showing up to the first day of college expected to row crew? Lol. It probably didn't go down that way but still. Wow. This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Which schools were these parents so set on getting their kids into? The list includes the University of Southern California, Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of San Diego, Wake Forest, and the University of Texas. Yikes. Ummm. Guess we all just have to sit, watch, and play this video on repeat until something happens. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Shannon Barbour News Writer Shannon is a news writer at Cosmopolitan.com, and when she's not obsessing about Cardi B, she's thinking about Justin Bieber and still trying to memorize Beyoncé's Beychella choreography. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and a slew of chief executives are among 50 wealthy people charged in the largest college cheating scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal officials said Tuesday. Those indicted in the investigation, dubbed "Operation Varsity Blues," allegedly paid bribes of up to $6.5 million to get their children into elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California, federal prosecutors said. "This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said at a news conference. "There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy and, I'll add, there will not be a separate criminal justice system either," Lelling said. Ringleader pleads guilty Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a presidential candidate and a former school teacher, expressed outrage over the scandal in an interview Tuesday with ABC News. "This is just stunning," Warren said. "To me this is just one more example of how the rich and powerful know how to take care of their own." According to Lelling, the ringleader of the scam is William Singer, owner of a college counseling service called Key Worldwide Foundation and a company called Edge College & Career Network. Singer allegedly accepted bribes totaling $25 million from parents between 2011 and 2018 "to guarantee their children's admission to elite schools," Lelling said. The parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege Singer of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court on Tuesday on charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice, Lelling said. Steven Masera, 69, the accountant and financial officer for the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation, was also indicted, according to court documents. Masera and Mark Riddell, a private school counselor in Bradenton, Florida, allegedly worked closely with Singer in the scam, according to the indictment. Mikaela Sanford, 32, of Folsom, California, another employee of the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation, and David Sidoo, 59, of Vancouver, Canada, were also indicted for allegedly working closely with Singer to facilitate the scam, according to the indictment. Singer would allegedly instruct parents to seek extended time for the children to take entrance exams or obtain medical documentation that their child had a learning disability, according to the indictment. The parents were then told to get the location of the test changed to one of two testing centers, one in Houston and another in West Hollywood, California, where test administrators Niki Williams, 44, of Houston and Igor Dvorskiy, 52, of Sherman Oaks, California, helped carry out the scam, the indictment alleges. Riddell, 36, allegedly either took ACT and SAT tests for students whose parents had paid bribes to Singer, according to the indictment. "Singer typically paid Riddell $10,000 for each student's test," according to the indictment. Those charged in the probe include nine coaches at elite schools, two SAT and ACT exam administrators, one exam proctor, a college administrator and 33 parents, including Huffman and Loughlin. There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy Huffman's husband, actor William H. Macy, was not indicted, but according to the court document he and Huffman were caught on a recorded conversation with a corroborating witness in the case, allegedly discussing a $15,000 payment to ensure their younger daughter scored high on a college entrance exam. Huffman was indicted on charges stemming from the $15,000 she allegedly disguised as a charitable donation so her older daughter could take part in the college entrance cheating scam, the indictment reads. But Huffman and Macy apparently decided not to go through with scheme for their younger daughter. At a hearing before a judge Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles, Huffman answered "yes" to questions from the judge and acknowledged she understood the charges against her. Macy watched silently from the front row of the courtroom. Huffman was released from custody Tuesday night after the judge approved a $250,000 bond for the actress. "The parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege," Lelling said. "They include, for example, the CEOs of private and public companies, successful securities and real estate investors, two well-known actresses, a famous fashion designer and the co-chairman of a global law firm." Also named as defendants in the indictment are Robert Zangrillo, 52, of Miami, founder and CEO of the private investment firm Dragon Global; Bill McGlashan, 55, of Mill Valley, California, a businessman and international private equity investor; Gordon Caplan, a New York attorney; and Gregory Abbott, 68, founder and chairman of International Dispensing Corp., a New York food and beverage packaging company, and his wife, Marcia Abbott, 59. Fake athletic credentials Lelling said in many of the cases, Singer allegedly bribed the coaches, who "agreed to pretend that certain applicants were recruited competitive athletes when, in fact, the applicants were not." The coaches allegedly "knew the students' athletic credentials had been fabricated," according to Lelling. He said Singer allegedly worked with the parents to "fabricate profiles for their kids, including fake athletic credential and honors, or fake participation in elite club teams." Singer, 58, allegedly even had parents stage photos or Photoshopped pictures of their children participating in sports. In one case highlighted by federal prosecutors, the former head women’s soccer coach at Yale University, Rudolph "Rudy" Meredith, 51, was paid $400,000 to accept a student even though the applicant did not play soccer. The parents of that student had paid Singer $1.2 million. Other elite schools named in the scam were the University of Texas, UCLA and Wake Forest. Joe Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Field Office, said 300 special agents fanned out across the country early Tuesday and arrested 38 people. He said seven other suspects were working to surrender to authorities and one is being actively pursued. Huffman was arrested at her home in Los Angeles, while Loughlin, who is in Canada, has yet to be taken into custody, sources told ABC News. School officials react USC President Wanda M. Austin addressed the scandal in a letter to the university community. "The federal government has alleged that USC is a victim in a scheme perpetrated against the university by a long-time Athletics Department employee, one current coach and three former coaching staff, who were allegedly involved in a college admissions scheme and have been charged by the government on multiple charges," Austin wrote. Austin vowed to take "appropriate employment action" against school employees involved in the scam and will review admissions decisions. On Tuesday afternoon, USC officials announced that Jovan Vanvic, 57, the university's water polo coach, and Donna Heinel, 57, USC's senior associate athletic director, were terminated from their jobs. "It is immensely disappointing that individuals would abuse their position at the university in this way," Austin said in the letter. "We will continue to cooperate fully with all law enforcement regulatory investigations." Wake Forest officials also released a statement saying the North Carolina school's head volleyball coach, William Ferguson, 48, was one of the defendants indicted. "The university has retained outside legal counsel to look into this matter," school officials said. "Wake Forest has placed Ferguson on administrative leave." The nationwide scheme was prosecuted in Boston partly because it was uncovered by FBI agents working there on an unrelated case, officials said. Fake test scores were submitted to Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern University, officials said, but none of those schools were named in the indictment. In most cases the students did not know their admission was contingent on a bribe, officials said. According to the charging papers, Huffman "made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 ... to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter." Bribes disguised as charitable contributions "Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so," the documents allege. Federal agents secretly recorded telephone calls with Huffman and a cooperating witness, according to the court papers. The documents say Loughlin -- best known for her role as Aunt Becky on the ABC sitcom "Full House" -- and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo 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." Federal agents obtained emails from Loughlin implicating her in the scam, according to the documents. Federal authorities ultimately had three cooperating witnesses to help them build their case. "Today's arrests should be a warning to others: You can't pay to play, you can't cheat to get ahead because you will get caught," Bonavolonta said. Others charged in the case are: John Vandemoer, 41, the head sailing coach at Stanford University Gordon Ernst, 52, former head coach of men and women's tennis at Georgetown University Ali Khoroshahin, 49, the former head coach of women's soccer at USC Laura Janke, 36, former assistant coach of women's soccer at USC Jorge Salcedo, 46, the former head coach of men's soccer at UCLA Michael Center, 54, the head coach of men's tennis at the University of Texas at Austin Martin Fox, 62, president of a private tennis academy in Houston Gamal Abdelaziz, 62, of Las Vegas Diane Blake, 55, and Todd Blake, 53, of San Francisco Jane Buckingham, 50, of Beverly Hills I-Hin "Joey" Chen, 64, of Newport Beach Amy Colburn, 59, and Gregory Colburn, 61, of Palo Alto, California Robert Flaxman, 62, of Laguna Beach, California Elizabeth Henriquez, 56, and Manuel Henriquez, 55, of Atherton, California Douglas Hodges, 61, of Laguna Beach, California Agustin Huneeus Jr., 53, of San Francisco Bruce Isackson, 61, and Davina Isackson, 55, of Hillsborough, California Michelle Janavs, 48, of Newport Coast, California Elisabeth Kimmel, 54, of Las Vegas Marjorie Klapper, 50, of Menlow Park, California Toby MacFarlane; 56; of Del Mar, California Devin Sloane, 53, of Los Angeles John Wilson, 59, of Hyannis Port, Massachusetts Homayoun Zadeh, 57, of Calabasas, California Marci Palatella, 63, of Healdburg, California Peter Jan Sartorio, 53, of Menlo Park, California Stephen Semprevivo, 53, of Los Angeles.<doc-sep>
Authorities charged dozens of people from affluent backgrounds in a nationwide college admissions cheating scam, according to Monday reports. Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are just two of the women involved in the alleged scam. Police arrested Huffman on Monday and took her into federal custody. Loughlin has yet to be taken into custody. What are the details? Others involved in the scam also include parents, college coaches, administrators, and more. About 50 people were charged in connection with the scheme. The bust is reportedly the biggest college admissions cheating scam ever prosecuted in the U.S. Law enforcement arrested 13 people in Los Angeles in connection with the scheme. The FBI said that 38 of the 50 people charged have been arrested and are in custody. Seven are reportedly working toward surrender, and authorities are actively pursuing another person in Hawaii. Authorities dubbed the scheme "Operation Varsity Blues." The scam was reportedly intended to secure placement for wealthy people's children through bribes, through a nationwide network. Thirty-three of those arrested were parents, and more than $25 million was allegedly funneled into bribing schools for admissions. William Singer, a college admissions counselor, pleaded guilty for his role in the scam and agreed to cooperate in the investigation. If convicted, Singer faces a maximum of 65 years in prison. Federal prosecutors said that there were two large parts of the scam. The first part included parents who reportedly paid a college preparation business to take important tests on the behalf of students. The second part involved the organization reportedly bribing college coaches to push through the kids' admissions as collegiate athletes, despite the students' abilities. Coaches from Georgetown University, Yale University, Stanford University, Wake Forest University, the University of Southern California, and more were implicated in the federal indictment. The crimes purportedly took place between 2011 and 2019. What is being said about this? Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the state of Massachusetts, said that the parents arrested in the ring were from a "catalog of wealth and privilege." "This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Lelling explained. "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." The U.S. attorney added, "For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected." In a statement, a spokesperson for the NCAA said, "The charges brought forth today are troubling and should be a concern for all of higher education. We are looking into these allegations to determine the extent to which NCAA rules may have been violated." Authorities said that they are considering charges against the students as well. "It's not an accident that there are no students charged in these charging documents," Lelling explained. "The parents, the other defendants, are clearly the prime movers of this fraud, it remains to be seen whether we charge any of the students."