BOSTON — Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were charged along with nearly 50 other people Tuesday in a scheme in which wealthy parents bribed college coaches and insiders at testing centres to help get their children into some of the most elite schools in the country, federal prosecutors said.
“These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the $25 million federal bribery case.
He called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.
At least nine athletic coaches and dozens of parents were among those charged. A total of 46 people were arrested by midday, including Huffman and Loughlin, in an investigation dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, federal authorities said.
Prosecutors said parents paid William Singer, an admissions consultant, from 2011 through last month to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes, to alter test scores and to have others take online classes to boost their children’s chances of getting into schools. (more...)
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