College bribe scandal
Actress Felicity Huffman, 12 others admit to bribery, fraud in college scandal
Actress Felicity Huffman and 12 other parents have pleaded guilty to using fraud to get their kids into top colleges.
Actress Felicity Huffman and a dozen other parents acknowledged they had used bribery and other fraud to help get their children into selective colleges, prosecutors announced Monday. A coach also agreed to plead guilty, they said.
The Justice Department charged 50 people last month in what U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston called the largest college admissions scam prosecuted by the department. On Monday, the parents agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, including Huffman.
Michael Center, the former head coach of men’s tennis at the University of Texas, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Prosecutors say Center accepted $60,000 in cash from William “Rick” Singer in 2015 and $40,000 directed to the school’s tennis program in exchange for designating an applicant to the university as a tennis recruit to help him gain admission.
Prosecutors said Singer, a college consultant, was the mastermind of the scheme to help wealthy parents buy admission into elite colleges for their children.
In a written statement Monday, Huffman expressed “deep regret and shame over what I have done,” and said she was ashamed for the pain she had caused her daughter, friends and others. She also apologized “to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.”
Her daughter knew absolutely nothing about her actions, Huffman wrote, “and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her.” That transgression, she wrote, “I will carry for the rest of my life.”
Huffman, 56, who starred in the TV show Desperate Housewives, agreed to pay Singer at least $15,000 to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme for her oldest daughter, prosecutors said.
It is not clear what penalties Huffman or the other defendants are facing.
The scandal quickly became a symbol of the influence of money and the anxiety surrounding college admissions.
Last month, Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Singer became key to the investigation as he cooperated with authorities for months, recording conversations he had with his clients.
Prosecutors described a scheme in which Singer took money from parents to bribe coaches and pay someone to take standardized tests, essentially guaranteeing the parents’ children good scores and likely admission as athletic recruits. Money “donated” to a fraudulent charity Singer established was used to pay off proctors whose job was to prevent cheating on tests, and to pay Mark Riddell, who worked at a sports academy, to take the tests.
Prosecutors say Singer paid coaches and an athletic department administrator to create fake profiles for some applicants so they would appear to be desirable athletic recruits, even though the students in some cases did not even play the sport in question.