In today’s news that we never saw coming, actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among more than 30 people who are facing charges as part of a nationwide college admissions scam.
According to ABC News, the scheme revolved around a man in California who’d receive bribes from parents (ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to $6 million) in exchange for help getting their children into elite and Ivy League colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, and USC.
The bribe would be funneled to one of two people: an SAT or ACT administrator, or a collegiate athletic coach.
In the first case, standardized testing administrators would either hire a proctor to take the test for said student or have them correct the student’s answers. In the second, a coach would create a falsified profile for a student (without athletic ambitions) that labeled them as an athlete.
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In a subsequent CNN press conference, officials shared more details regarding the tactics used in the scheme: For example, parents were advised to bring their children to therapists to receive fraudulent notes saying their kids had a learning disability and needed additional standardized testing time. Other students’ faces were Photoshopped on stock photos of athletes.
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According to court documents, Huffman and husband William H. Macy “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.”
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As for Loughlin, she 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.”
Reps for both actresses did not immediately return InStyle’s request for comment.