Reality TV star Lori Huffman seen [right] with husband Macy and daughters Georgia and Sofia at the Golden Globes, allegedly paid a $15,000 ‘charitable contribution to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter’
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston described it “a nationwide conspiracy that facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and the admission of students to elite universities.” Athletic coaches, parents and exam administrators were also implicated.
The schools include Yale, Stanford, Georgetown University and the University of Southern California, federal prosecutors said.Huffman, who played Lynette Scavo on the ABC series “Desperate Housewives,” and Loughlin, known for her role as Aunt Becky on the ABC sitcom “Full House” and its Netflix spin-off “Fuller House,” were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Andrew Lelling, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in a news conference Tuesday that families paid a combined $25 million, mostly funneled through charitable accounts, to bribe coaches and university administrators between 2011 and 2018.
‘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,’ stated the 200 page document that was filed on Tuesday.

Indictment of William Singer
Loughlin and 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,’ according to the documents.
Huffman paid a $15,000 ‘charitable contribution ‘to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter,’ states the complaint.
‘Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so,’ according to the documents.

The charging documents state that Huffman had the site where he daughter took the SATs moved from her own high school to a test center West Hollywood.
Her test was then administered by a proctor who had flown in from Tampa and told investigators that he ‘facilitated cheating, either by correcting the student’s answers after the test or by actively assisting the student during the exam.’
In this case, Huffman’s daughter scored a 1420, which was a 400 point improvement from her PSAT results just one year prior.
Soon after the proctor was paid $40,000 by Key Worldwide Foundation, the same organization that Huffman would later give a $15,000 donation to, according to the documents.
William Rick Singer, a resident of Sacramento and Newport Beach, and the owner of for-profit and nonprofit education groups has been indicted on a vast racketeering conspiracy that involved cheating on standardized tests, according in the U.S. District Court of Mass.
The documents also include the transcript of a phone call between Huffman and the individual who facilitated the test in which she admits that her older daughter had assistance and expresses her desire for her younger daughter to get similar help.
In a follow up call just this past December, Huffman and her unnamed spouse spoke about their daughter wanting to get into Georgetown.
It was then decided that the young girl would take the exam twice, one on her own and once with help, to ensure she got the score necessary to get her into Georgetown, it is claimed.
Then, at the last second, the couple decided not to have their daughter take the test with assistance.
Longtime coach of Yale Univ women’s soccer team, Rudy Meredith [Photo], allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to approve two applicants for athletic scholarships to the Ivy league school – one of whom never even played the sport, according to court docs
William Rick Singer, founder of a college preparation business in California, was the leader of the scam and was expected to plead guilty Tuesday, Lelling said.
Parents would pay Singer to have someone take an SAT or ACT exam for their child or correct the test afterward, Lelling said. Singer also paid coaches to designate unqualified applicants as athletes and would sometimes help families fabricate a profile for their children, including using Photoshop to digitally alter stock photos with an applicant’s face, the U.S. attorney said.
“There can be no separate college admission for the wealthy,” Lelling said, adding that “honest, genuinely talented students were rejected.”

Caught in the net: Sacramento business William Rick Singer and Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer [photo], are expected to plead guilty in the case on Tuesday.
Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI special agent in Boston, called the actions of the 33 parents involved “selfish” and “shameful.” The real victims, he said, are the “hard-working students who did everything they could” to get accepted into those schools, but “ended up being shut out because far less qualified students and their families bought their way in.”
Authorities said most parents try to conceal the plan from their child, but there were cases in which children did know about it.

At least 14 people were charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, two were charged with money laundering conspiracy, and one was charged with conspiracy to defraud United States.
A rep for Loughlin said Tuesday she had “no info to share at this time.”