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BOSTON (AP) – Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were charged with nearly 50 other people on Tuesday as part of a ploy in which wealthy parents bought university coaches and insiders at test centers. to help their children enter some of the most prestigious schools in the country, said federal prosecutors.
"These parents constitute a catalog of wealth and privilege," said US lawyer Andrew Lelling in announcing the $ 25 million federal corruption case.
He called it the biggest college fraud ever pursued by the US Department of Justice.
At least nine sports coaches and dozens of parents were among the defendants. A total of 46 people were arrested at midday, including Huffman and Loughlin, in an investigation called Operation Varsity Blues, announced the federal authorities.
Prosecutors said the parents had hired a 2011 admissions consultant last month to entice coaches and administrators to tag their kids as recruited athletes, to change test scores and to take classes. online to increase the chances of their children to go to school.
Parents spent between $ 200,000 and $ 6.5 million to guarantee the admission of their children, officials said.
"For every student admitted for fraud, an honest and truly talented student was rejected," said Lelling.
Lelling said the investigation was continuing and that the authorities thought other parents were involved. Schools themselves are not targets of the survey, he said.
No students have been charged. Authorities said that in many cases, students were not aware of the fraud.
Coaches have worked in schools such as Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Southern California and the University of California Los Angeles. A former Yale football coach pleaded guilty and helped build a case against others.
The authorities said that coaches in sports such as football, tennis and volleyball had accepted bribes to put students on lists of recruited athletes, regardless of their abilities or experience. . This has had the effect of increasing the chances of student admission.
The bribes would have been channeled through an admission consulting firm in Newport Beach, California. Authorities said the parents had paid the founder of Edge College & Career Network about $ 25 million to allow their kids to go to university.
Loughlin appeared in ABC sitcom "Full House" and Huffman starred in "Desperate Housewives" on ABC. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
According to Court documents, Huffman paid 15,000 dollars, disguised as charitable donations, so that his daughter could participate in the fraudulent fraud at the entrance of the college.
Court documents revealed that a co-operation witness had met Huffman and her husband, actor William H. Macy, at their home in Los Angeles, and had explained to them the scam. The co-worker told the investigators that Huffman and his wife "accepted the plan".
A spokeswoman for Loughlin did not comment. Messages soliciting comments from Huffman representatives were not immediately returned.
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