Actress Felicity Huffman and 13 other people have agreed to plead guilty to participating in what prosecutors call the largest college admissions scam uncovered in U.S. history, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
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The 14 are among 50 people accused by federal prosecutors in Boston of engaging in schemes that involved cheating on college entrance exams and paying US$25 million in bribes to secure admission for their children at well-known universities.
Huffman, who is married to actor William H. Macy, is accused of making a $15,000 contribution to California college admissions consultant William (Rick) Singer’s foundation in exchange for having an associate of Singer’s secretly correct her daughter’s answers on an SAT college entrance exam at a test centre that prosecutors say Singer controlled in 2017.
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Huffman released a statement saying she was “pleading guilty to the charge brought against me by the United States Attorney’s Office.”
The statement continued: “I am in full acceptance of my guilt and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.”
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“I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community. I want to apologize to them and, especially, 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,” the statement read.
“My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her. This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty,” the statement concluded.
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Huffman, who starred in Desperate Housewives, was among 33 parents charged in March with participating in the scheme in hopes of getting their children into universities including Yale, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.
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Authorities say the scheme was overseen by Singer, who has pleaded guilty to facilitating the cheating scam and bribing coaches to present the parents’ children as fake athletic recruits.
It’s unclear what the future is for Lori Loughlin’s case.
Prosecutors allege that Loughlin and her husband, Los Angeles fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to pay $500,000 to have their two daughters named as recruits to USC’s crew team, even though they did not row competitively.
—With files from Reuters
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