College Admissions Bribery Scheme Targeted This NC School

WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Federal prosecutors indicted dozens of people, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and college coaches, in a cheating scheme pegged on bribery and fraud to gain admission into elite colleges, including at least one North Carolina university.

According to prosecutors, parents paid a Newport Beach, California-based college prep business as much as $75,000 to have someone take SAT or ACT exams for their children.

The lawsuit alleges cheating on college entrance exams to the likes of Yale, Georgetown, University of San Diego, Stanford, UCLA and USC. Dubbed "Operation Varsity Blues," the indictment snares college coaches and SAT, ACT and college administrators in the nation's largest college admissions fraud case. In court documents unsealed Tuesday, federal prosecutors named 44 people in the $25 million scheme.

Nine coaches were implicated and charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, and include Winston-Salem- based Wake Forest University, according to documents released by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts.

"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.

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.

The FBI recorded calls involving the actresses and a cooperating witness.

Loughlin, best known for her role in the sitcom "Full House," and Huffman, who starred in the ABC hit show "Desperate Housewives," were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud. Representatives for Loughlin and Huffman could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to the court documents, prosecutors allege William Rick Singer, who founded a college preparation business out of Newport Beach, was the mastermind behind a scheme to charge parents from $15,000 to $75,000 to pay someone to take SAT or ACT exams for their children. He allegedly bribed Los Angeles test administrator Igor Dvorsiky to allow a man to take the tests on behalf of his clients.

The scheme also allegedly involved the bribing of college coaches to identify the students as recruited athletes, sometimes exaggerating their abilities to boost their standings in the admission process.

According to court documents, clients funneled bribes through Key Worldwide Foundation charitable accounts "to bribe coaches and university administrators at elite universities nationwide. In exchange for the bribes, the coaches and administrators agreed to designate the children of these clients as recruited athletes, or some other preferred category, thereby facilitating the children's admission to the universities."

Dozens of people were named in the case on charges ranging from conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud; honest services wire fraud to conspiracy to commit racketeering.

This is a developing news story and will be updated when more information is available.

Patch Editors Paige Austin, Ryan Bonner, and Feroze Dhanoa contributed