HV Native Felicity Huffman Charged In College Admissions Scheme

BOSTON, MA —Actress Felicity Huffman, who hails from Bedford, is among dozens charged in what the Department of Justice has called the "largest ever" college recruitment scam.

Documents from the DOJ's investigation, titled "Operation Varsity Blues," show that prosecutors have charged 50 people, including 33 parents, nine coaches, two SAT and ACT administrators, one proctor and one college administrator.

"These parents are a catalogue of wealth and privilege," U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, said at a Tuesday press conference. Among those charged are actresses — including "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman, who was born in Bedford in Westchester County, and Lori Loughlin, who starred as Aunt Becky in "Full House" — CEOs, a famous fashion designer and a co-chairman of a global law firm.

Officials said that 38 people have been taken into custody safely, seven are working toward surrendering and one is being "actively pursued." A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Loughlin, who was reportedly traveling when federal agents showed up at her Los Angeles home Tuesday morning.

An affidavit in support of a criminal complaint says that the defendants named by prosecutors conspired with others, known and unknown, to bribe college entrance exam administrators to facilitate cheating on the exams, to bribe varsity coaches and college administrators at elite universities to designate certain applicants as recruited athletes or favored candidates and to use a charitable organization as a front to conceal the nature and the source of the bribes.

The defendants, who prosecutors say were mainly people whose children were applying to college, conspired to use bribery and other types of fraud to have their children admitted to colleges and universities, the complaint says.

Some of the elite universities where prosecutors say the defendants tried to have their children admitted include Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles.

William "Rick" Singer, who is accused by federal officials of being at the center of the scheme, is charged in Massachusetts with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice. Singer owns "Edge College & Career Network, LLC," also known as "The Key," a purported charitable foundation that he used as a front to launder money to facilitate the scheme, officials said. Many of the bribes were paid through the purported charity, prosecutors say. Singer is expected to plead guilty in court in Boston Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors allege that the scheme included bribing college entrance exam administrators to allow a third party to pose as the actual students in some cases, provide answers during the exam or correct answers after they had completed the exams. Singer is accused of instructing his clients to seek extended time for their children on SAT and ACT exams and to change the location of the exams to either a public high school in Houston or a private college prep school in West Hollywood, California.

At those two centers, Singer paid bribes to two administrators, Niki Williams, 44, of Houston and Igor Dvorskiy, 52, of Sherman Oaks, California to allow cheating, prosecutors said. The two administrators accepted bribes of as much as $10,000 per test, according to prosecutors. Both Williams and Dvorskiy are charged in an indictment with racketeering conspiracy.

A third person charged in the case, Mark Riddell, 36, of Palmetto, Florida would take the exams in place of students, give the answers during the exam or correct them after the tests, prosecutors allege. Riddell is charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The scheme also involved bribing athletic coaches and administrators to designate college applicants as athletic recruits regardless of whether the applicants played the sport or not, court documents say.

The scheme also involved having a third party take classes in place of actual students and submitting falsified applications for admission, documents say.

The actual colleges are not seen as co-conspirators in the scheme, officials said.

You can see all those charged in the scheme here.

Written by Feroze Dhanoa, with additional reporting from Michael Woyton.

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