An investigation into a massive college entrance-exam cheating plot has ensured some surprisingly big names.
According to NBC News, the FBI and prosecutors in Boston have charged 50 people, including “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman and “Fuller House” star Lori Loughlin, for mail fraud in the scheme.
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The plot allegedly involved parents paying bribes of up to $6 million, ABC News reported, in order to get their children into elite schools.
Students were allegedly admitted as students regardless of athletic ability, and received help cheating on entrance exams.
The indictment explained: “Beginning in or about 2011, and continuing through the present, the defendants — principally individuals whose high-school-age children were applying to college — conspired with others to use bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission to colleges and universities in the District of Massachusetts and elsewhere, including Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.”
Huffman allegedly “made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000… to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so.”
A spokeswoman for the FBI confirmed to ET that Felicity Huffman was arrested this morning without incident at her Los Angeles area home. The actress, who is among other defendants involved in the college admissions bribery scam, is scheduled to appear at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles around 2 p.m. this afternoon.
The spokeswoman also told ET that Lori Loughlin has not been taken into custody yet. When federal agents went to Loughlin’s L.A. home this morning she was not there. Federal agents were informed Loughlin is out of town. An arrest warrant is out for her arrest.
Loughlin and her husband allegedly “agreed to pay bribes totalling $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.”
The news of the actresses’ arrests was met with surprise and plenty of jokes on Twitter.
