School scandal

TV stars, coaches charged in college bribery scheme

Associated Press

BOSTON

Fifty people, including Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, were charged Tuesday in a scheme in which wealthy parents are accused of bribing college coaches and other insiders to get their children into some of the nation’s most selective schools.

Federal authorities called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department, with the parents accused of paying an estimated $25 million in bribes.

At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, many of them prominent in law, finance, fashion, the food and beverage industry and other fields, were charged. Dozens, including Huffman, the Emmy-winning star of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” were arrested by midday.

“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the results of a fraud and conspiracy investigation code-named Operation Varsity Blues.

The coaches worked at schools such as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. A former Yale soccer coach pleaded guilty and helped build the case against others.

Two more of those charged – Stanford’s sailing coach and the college-admissions consultant at the very center of the scheme – pleaded guilty Tuesday in Boston. Others appeared in court and were released on bail.

Huffman appeared in a Los Angeles courthouse where a magistrate judge said she could be released on a $250,000 bond. The actress looked repeatedly at her husband, actor William H. Macy, who was sitting in the audience during the proceedings. Her attorney cited her community ties in asking that the actress be released on her own recognizance, which the judge refused to grant.

“She’s simply not the kind of person who is going to become an international fugitive,” Huffman’s attorney, Evan A. Jeaness, said in court.

Huffman is scheduled to appear in court March 29 in Boston.

No students were charged, with authorities saying that in many cases the teenagers were unaware of what was going on. Several of the colleges involved made no mention of taking any action against the students.