Now that’s Desperate!
Hollywood stars and Housewives actress among dozens accused of paying £4.6m bribes to get children into elite colleges
HOLLYWOOD stars are among dozens of wealthy parents accused of paying up to £4.6million bribes to get their children into elite US colleges.
Police yesterday arrested 50 people, including Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman, over claims they paid for entrance exam officials to fake test scores and athletic performances to secure admission to top universities such as Yale and Stanford.
Prosecutors said the scheme ran from 2011 until last month, and that middlemen have raked in $25million (£19million) from payments from parents of between $200,000 (£153,000) and $6.1million (£4.6million).
Along with Oscar-nominated Miss Huffman – who is married to fellow movie star William H Macy – the actress Lori Loughlin, who stars in the TV show Full House, was also arrested. Others
include wealthy
‘Simply bought their way in’
financiers, a fashion designer and chairman of an international law firm. According to prosecutors, the leader of the scheme, William Singer, set up a non-profit organisation called Key Worldwide Foundation to launder money from the parents that he also used to bribe college entrance exam officials. Singer also alleg- edly used his connections to bribe administrators to designate applicants as ‘ athletic’ recruits – even if they were not any good at sports – as this would improve their chances of getting in. In some cases, it was claimed he Photoshopped pictures of the children on to the bodies of athletes to make them look sportier. Miss Huffman, 56, was last night in custody charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. According to legal documents, she made a ‘charitable contribution’ of $15,000 (£11,500) to Singer for her eldest daughter, Sofia, to have her SAT exam answers – the equivalent of A-levels – secretly corrected afterwards. Mr Macy, the star of films such as Fargo and the US TV show Shameless, was not charged. Miss Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, the fashion designer and founder of Mossimo clothing, allegedly paid $500,000 (£ 382,000) to have their two daughters designated as recruits for the rowing team at the University of South Carolina. Although the girls do not row, it is claimed their father provided photos of them on rowing machines to use in the fraud.
most no up According idea to. of The the what children FBI to their the condemned parents involved indictment, were had the scam while attorney as Andrew ‘selfish’ for the Lelling, District and ‘shameful’, the of Massachusetts, US are the hardworking said the ‘real students’ victims who students lost out and to their ‘far less families qualified who simply bought their way in’. He added: ‘There can be no separate college admission for the wealthy, and there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.’
Singer is facing charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.
In all, 33 parents were charged as well as 13 athletics coaches and associates of Mr Singer.
The colleges themselves were not accused of being involved.