College Admissions Scandal Continues With Newport Beach Mom

NEWPORT BEACH, CA —Yet another case of college cheating scandal has hit the shores of Newport Beach. Resident and mother Karen Littlefair, 57, admitted to hiring a proxy to take online classes for her son, paying $9,000 for credits toward her child's graduation from Georgetown University.

On Monday, Littlefair said that she planned on pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on a date to be scheduled by the court, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston. She is the latest defendant to strike a deal in the wide-ranging college-admissions-cheating scandal.

According to the terms of her plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence of four months in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $9,500, and restitution.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. A federal district court judge based the penalties upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Littlefair agreed with Newport Beach businessman William "Rick" Singer and others to pay $9,000 to have an employee of Singer's for-profit college counseling business, The Edge College & Career Network, also known as the Key, according to prosecutors. They would take online classes, in place of Littlefair's son, and submit the fraudulently earned credits to Georgetown University.

The Key employee allegedly completed four classes for Littlefair's son at Georgetown and elsewhere, prosecutors said. Littlefair's son graduated from Georgetown, using the credits earned by the Key employee, in May 2018.
Singer previously pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government's investigation.

Dozens of parents and college athletic coaches were implicated in the 52-defendant nationwide bribery scandal, in which wealthy parents paid Singer thousands of dollars to have their children's entrance-exam scores doctored. In other cases, students were falsely admitted to elite universities as athletic recruits, even though they had no experience in those select sports.

Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Huffman was released Oct. 25 from a low-security federal prison camp in Northern California 11 days into a 14-day sentence for paying to have a proctor correct her daughter's answers on a college-entrance exam.

Huffman, 56, was sentenced to prison time in September. She will spend a year on supervised release, pay a $30,000 fine, and perform 250 hours of community service. The "Desperate Housewives" actress was the first parent to receive jail time in connection with the wide-ranging college-admissions cheating scandal, a probe dubbed "Varsity Blues."

"Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and money-laundering charges in the scandal.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.