Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among 50 people charged in massive college entrance exam cheating scandal in which parents paid $25M in bribes to get their kids into elite schools like Yale, Georgetown and Stanford

• e-mail

Two Hollywood stars have been implicated in a massive cheating scandal.

Full House star Lori Loughlin and Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman are two of the 50 parents and coaches charged in a plot to get their children into schools including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, University of San Diego, USC, University of Texas, Wake Forest, and Yale.

The scheme was uncovered by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Boston, and involved parents paying bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into these elite schools. 

In many instances, the children were unaware that their parents had paid these tax-deductible bribes, according to federal documents.

Most of those charged either paid to get higher SAT scores or faked an athletic resume that, with the participation of a bribed college coach, helped the children get accepted to a college as a team's recruit. 

Prosecutors said in court on Tuesday that some students also lied about their ethnicity on applications to take advantage of affirmative action. 

Huffman has two daughters with husband William H. Macy including Sofia, who is 18, and 16-year old Georgia. 

Loughlin and her designer husband Mossimo Giannulli also have two daughters: Olivia, 19, and Isabella, 20. 

Macy was not charged but Giannulli was named alongside his wife in the papers. 

Huffman, Loughlin and Giannulli are all charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud.

Aunt Becky with the bad heirs: Full House star Lori Loughlin and Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman are two of the 50 parents charged in a plot to get their children into elite schools (Loughlin with daughters Olivia and Bella in February)

Desperate housewife: Huffman allegedly paid a $15,000 'charitable contribution' 'to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter' (Huffman and Macy with their daughters Georgia and Sofia at the Golden Globes)

Support system: Huffman and Giannulli have been arrested while a warrant is out for Loughlin's arrest (William H macy, who has not been charged, arrives in court on Tuesday)

The write stuff: One mother, Jane Buckingham, submitted a handwriting sample from her son to make sure it would match when an individual took a test for her son (above), documents allege

'Beginning in or about 2011, and continuing through the present, the defendants - principally individuals whose high-school age children were applying to college - conspired with others to use bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children's admission to colleges and universities in the District of Massachusetts and elsewhere, including Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of Southern California - Los Angeles,' stated the 200 page document that was filed on Tuesday.  

'This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth, combined with fraud,' US Attorney Andrew Lelling said on Tuesday in a press conference.

'There can be no separate college admission for wealthy, and I will add there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.'

William Rick Singer, the founder of Key Worldwide Foundation, had been identified as the alleged mastermind behind the scandal.

The documents claim that since 2011, Singer has received $25 million from parents which was then used to payoff or bribe individuals who could 'designate their children as recruited athletes, or other favored admissions categories.'

The 'cheating' referenced in the documents occurred in four forms. 

'Bribing college entrance exam administrators to allow a third party to facilitate cheating on college entrance exams, in some cases by posing as actual students,' is the first.

'Bribing university athletic coaches and administrators to designate applicants as purported athletic recruits - regardless of their athletic abilities, and in some cases, even though they did not play the sport,' is the second.

That is what the documents accuse Loughlin and her husband of doing with their daughters. 

'Having a third party take classes in place of the actual students, with the understanding that the grades earned in those classes would be submitted as part of the students' application,' is the third.

The fourth was 'submitting falsified applications for admission to universities ... that, among other things, included the fraudulently obtained exam scores and class grades, and often listed fake awards and athletic activities.' 

Parties are accused of then 'disguising the nature and source of the bribe payments by funneling the money through the accounts of a purported charity.'

That is what Huffman is accused of doing in the documents filed on Tuesday. 

All with the help of Singer. 

'Okay, so, who we are-- what we do is we help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids into school …. Every year there are- is a group of families, especially where I am right now in the Bay Area, Palo Alto, I just flew in. That they want guarantees, they want this thing done,' Singer told one parent.

'They don’t want to be messing around with this thing. And so they want in at certain schools. So I did 761 what I would call, "side doors." There is a front door which means you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is ten times as much money. 

'And I’ve created this side door in. Because the back door, when you go through institutional advancement, as you know, everybody’s got a friend of a friend, who knows somebody who knows somebody but there’s no guarantee, they’re just gonna give you a second look. My families want a guarantee. 

'So, if you said to me "here’s our grades, here’s our scores, here’s our ability, and we want to go to X school" and you give me one or two schools, and then I’ll go after those schools and try to get a guarantee done. So that, by the time, the summer of her senior year, before her senior year, hopefully we can have this thing done, so that in the fall, before December 15th, you already knows she’s in. Done. 

'And you make a financial commitment. It depends on what school you want, may determine how much that actually is. But that’s kind of how the the side and back door work.'

Mastermind: William Rick Singer, the founder of the Edge College & Career Network who became a cooperating witness in the case, leaves court on Tuesday (above)

Caught in the act: Huffman and her spouse gave a $15,000 donation to the group that later paid the man who proctored the SAT to her daughter (above)

Plan: A recorded phone conversation makes it evident that Huffman is aware that her daughter will be assisted in the test (above)

Plan: In one call from last year, Huffman revealed she planned to use the same system for her younger daughter (above) after it worked for her older daughter

Huffman paid a $15,000 'charitable contribution 'to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter,' states the complaint. 

'Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so,' according to the documents.

The charging documents state that Huffman had the site where he daughter took the SATs moved from her own high school to a test center West Hollywood.

Her test was then administered by a proctor who had flown in from Tampa and told investigators that he 'facilitated cheating, either by correcting the student's answers after the test or by actively assisting the student during the exam.'

Ball: An example of a student whose face was photoshopped onto another that was included in court documents

In this case, Huffman's daughter scored a 1420, which was a 400 point improvement from her PSAT results just one year prior. 

Soon after the proctor was paid $40,000 by Key Worldwide Foundation, the same organization that Huffman would later give a $15,000 donation to, according to the documents. 

The documents also include the transcript of a phone call between Huffman and the individual who facilitated the test in which she admits that her older daughter had assistance and expresses her desire for her younger daughter to get similar help. 

In a follow up call just this past December, Huffman and her unnamed spouse spoke about their daughter wanting to get into Georgetown.

It was then decided that the young girl would take the exam twice, one on her own and once with help, to ensure she got the score necessary to get her into Georgetown, it is claimed.

Then, at the last second, the couple decided not to have their daughter take the test with assistance. 

Macy appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon to support his wife, and was seen arriving with a lawyer.  

Whoadies: Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli (above with olviia after her graduation in June) used Singer to get both daughters into USC

It begins: The couple emailed Singer in 2016 about their daughters college prospects, stating that they wanted to do the necessary work to see that the girls got into USC as opposed to ASU

Keep it going: This same exasct process was then repeated with the young daughter, Olivia

Hard: At the same time, Loughlin complained that her daughter was having difficulty filling out her other college applications, prompting Singer to ask an employee to take care of that task

Drama: Then, at some point, there was a very heated and public altercation between Giannulli and the counselor, which elicited an email from Dr Heinel

Loughlin and Giannulli 'agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team - despite the fact that they did not participate in crew - thereby facilitating their admission to USC,' according to the documents. 

The couple emailed Singer in 2016 about their daughters college prospects, stating that they wanted to do the necessary work to see that the girls got into USC as opposed to ASU.

Emails obtained by investigators revealed that it was soon decided that bribes would be paid to have the girls recruited as crew coxswains. 

A short time after that, photos were taken of older daughter Isabella on an ergometer. 

Dr. Donna Heinel, the senior associate athletic director at USC, presented Isabella as a potential athletic recruit a month later and she was approved for conditional admission.

It was then asked that a check be sent to Heinle for $50,000 from Giannulli, who a short time later asked if he could mention the story to the athletic director at USC when the two men were at Augusta, likely playing at the famed golf club.

Singer stated that this was not a good idea because when he discussed the possibility of Isabella's admission with him a year he thought the family 'would be good for a million plus.'  

Isabella received her admission letter the following March, which was followed by another note requesting a donation of $200,000 to Key Worldwide Foundation. 

After the amount was wired to the organization a note was returned that stated no good or services had been exchanged for the money, which according to the documents is false.

This same exact process was then repeated with the young daughter, Olivia, it is claimed.

Problems arose however when Olivia's guidance counselor became curious as to how she managed to receive admission based on her involvement in crew since she did not row. 

At the same time, Loughlin complained that her daughter was having difficulty filling out her other college applications, prompting Singer to ask an employee to take care of that task. 

This was done so as not to draw attention to the fact that it was already confirmed that she had received conditional admission to the school. 

Then, at some point, there was a very heated and public altercation between Giannulli and the counselor, which elicited an email from Dr Heinel asking that this not happen in the future so as to avoid detection.

This all began to fall apart in October 2018 when the IRS audited Key Worldwide and began to look into donations made by parents whose children were then admitted to USC. 

The two were told by Singer to say they had given the money to help 'underserved kids.' 

Pay to play: Georgetown tennis coach Gordie Ernst (left) received a reported $2.7 million from the scam, while Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith (right) pocketed $400,000

Probing: 'USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme,' said the university in a statement ( Trojans head coach Jovan Vavic during the NCAA Mens Water Polo)

Land and sea: Former USC soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin (left) ad Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer (right in court on Tuesday) were among those charged

Ali Khosroshahin, the former women's soccer coach at USC, Laura Janke, the former assistant women's soccer coach, and Jovan Vavic, the school's current water polo coach are also charged in the case alongside Dr. Heinel. 

'We are aware of the ongoing wide-ranging criminal investigation involving universities nationwide, including USC. USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation,' said USC in a statement on Tuesday. 

'USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme. Additionally, the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.'

That was not the only school where employees were taking money.

Gordie Ernst, the tennis coach at Georgetown who famously gave Michelle Obama and her daughter lessons, received $2.7 million according to prosecutors, while Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith pocketed $400,000 for allowing a recruit who had never once played the sport onto the team.

Prosecutors claim that young woman faked an injury as soon as she arrived at school. 

Stanford terminated head sailing coach John Vandemoer after he agreed to enter a guilty please for accepting a bribe of more than $100,000.   

In a number of cases, the faces of the teenagers were even photoshopped onto individuals playing the sport which they purported to be involved in at the time. 

Vademoer and Meredith are two of the cooperating witnesses in the case along with Singer and Mark Riddell, a Florida man who would take the test for the students or edit their answers according to the documents filed on Tuesday.

In his biography on the website for the Newport Beach-based Key Foundation, Singer is heralded his ability to get children into the college of their choice. 

Singer is extolled for 'helping students discover their life passion, and guiding them along with their families through the complex college admissions maze,' in his bio. 

'Rick draws on his life experiences of being a father and college athletics coach. He has seen first hand the stress that the college admissions and athletics recruiting process can put on a family,' it reads.

'Over the years, Rick and his team of coaches have helped thousands of students fulfill their life passion in getting into the right college to achieve their dreams. Using The Key method, Key coaches help unlock the full potential of your son or daughter, and set them on a course to excel in life.'

That Key method largely involved donating money which was then used to bribe or payoff individuals per the documents released on Tuesday.  

Singer would take the money donated or given by parents and use it to pay Igor Dvorsiky and Lisa 'Niki' Williams to administer the standardized tests to the children of those charged in the scheme.

Others who are named in the documents include: Bill McGlashan, the millionaire investor and director at CAA who founded The Rise Fund alongside Bono; Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.; Agustin Huneeus, head of the Huneeus vineyard in Napa Valley; Gordon Caplan, a co-chairman at the law firm Willkie Farr; Bruce Isackson, president of WP Investments; and Manuel Henriquez, chairman and CEO of Hercules Technology Growth Capital.

'We believe everyone charged here today had a role in fostering a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for students trying to get into these schools the right way through hard work, good grades and community service,' said said John Bonavolonta, the FBI Special Agent in Charge. 

Henriquez, whose company stock took a big hit after news of the scandal broke, ended up paying over a million dollars to get his daughter into Georgetown.

That required both fake testing and and, at best, some heavily trumped up sports accomplishments that were flat out false.

'In addition to the falsified essay, the application falsely indicated that she played "club tennis" all through high school for 20 hours per week and 52 weeks per year, and listed her as having a "Top 50 ranking" in the United States Tennis Association ("USTA") Junior Girls Tennis for her sophomore through senior years of high school, and as being on the USTA All-Academic Team for tennis for her junior and senior years,' reads the complaint. 

'In fact, records obtained from the USTA do not show that she played at any USTA tournaments in high school.'

A foot note then adds: 'At her best, she appears to have ranked 207th in Northern California in the under-12 girls division, with an overall win/loss record of 2-8.' 

THE FULL LIST OF PEOPLE CHARGED WITH COLLEGE ADMITTANCE SCAM

THE STARS

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli spent $500,000 getting their two daughters into USC, according to prosecutors 

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli

Actress Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo are among the three most well known names on the list. They have two daughters, Olivia, 20, Isabella, 19, and Mossimo also has a son from a previous relationship. It is not clear which of their children is in college.  

Olivia is a YouTube star who has amounted millions of fans online but she is also enrolled at USC, as is their 19-year-old daughter Isabella. 

They allegedly paid $50,000 to get their oldest daughter into USC under the guise that she was a crew coxswain when in fact she does not row crew. 

Felicity Huffman is accused of paying a $15,000 bribe to get her oldest daughter Sofia into USC 

Felicity Huffman 

Huffman is best known for her role on Desperate Housewives. 

She is married to fellow actor William H. Macy but he has not been charged in the indictment. 

The pair have two daughters, Sofia, 18, and Georgia, 16.

Huffman is accused of paying $15,000  to have her daughter's exam proctored by Mark Riddell. 

Riddell was described by authorities as 'just a really smart guy' who would either sit tests for students, change their answers afterwards or help them actively while they took it in one of two test centers that was 'controlled' by the scheme's 'mastermind' Rick Singer. 

Huffman allegedly used the scheme in December 2017 but the indictment does not specify how Riddell allegedly helped her daughter. 

She considered using it for her youngest daughter, Georgia, but decided in the end that she did not need to, according to authorities.  

THE COLLEGE PROFESSORS, COACHES AND 'MASTERMIND'

William Rick Singer, the 'mastermind' 

Rick Singer ran The Key, a college preparation business 

Singer is accused of leading the scam. 

He led a college counseling program and, according to prosecutors, also ran a fake charity through which he funneled bribes.

The scam worked in two ways; he would have people come into the exam to correct students' answers and he also then bribed sports coaches to offer them scholarships, in some cases for sports they did not even play. 

Singer cooperated with authorities as part of the investigation and continued taking bribes after he had been contacted by police. 

Some of his conversations were recorded by police who obtained a wire tap to listen in. He is facing a maximum of 65 years behind bars and has pleaded guilty on all counts he was charged with. 

It remains unclear if he will be given leniency given his cooperation. 

Rudolph Meredith 

Meredith is a women's soccer coach at Yale. In his bio on the college's website, he is heralded as the 'winningest' coach, with 24 seasons under his belt. 

Mark Riddell 

Riddell is the director of IMG Academy , a college entrance exam preparation company.  

Rudolph Meredith, the women's soccer coach at Yale (left) and Mark Riddell, director of IMG Academy 

John Vandemoer 

Vandemoer is the head sailing coach at Stanford.   

Gordon Ernst 

Ernst is the head of women's tennis at the University of Rhode Island. 

He taught at Georgetown in the past and worked as a personal tennis coach for Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, while they were in the White House. 

John Vandemoer (left) is the head sailing coach at Stanford. Gordie Ernst was Michelle Obama's private tennis coach when she was First Lady. He is now the head of women's tennis at the University of Rhode Island.

Houmayoun Zadeg

Homa H Zadeh is a professor at USC. He is the Associate Professor and Director, Advanced Education Program in Periodontology. 

Michael Center

Center is the men's soccer coach at the University of Texas.  

Homa H Zadeh (left) is a professor at USC. Michael Center (right) is the men's soccer coach at the University of Texas.

Donna Heinel 

Heinel is the senior women's athletics director at USC. She is alleged to have accepted a $50,000 from Lori Loughlin and her husband, among others, for admitting fraudulent tests.

Laura Janke 

Janke is a former assistant soccer coach at USC. She allegedly took payment from Loughlin and her husband for their youngest daughter. 

Donna Heinel (left) is the senior athletic director at USC. Laura Janke (right) is a former assistant soccer coach

Ali Khosroshahin 

Khosroshahin is the head women's soccer coach at USC. 

Jovan Vavic

Vavic is the head coach for the men's and women's water polo teams at USC. 

Ali Khosroshahin (left) is the head of women's soccer at USC and Jovan Vavic is the head of the men's and women's water polo teams at USC 

Igor Dvorskiy

Dvorskiy is the president of the West Hollywood College Preparatory School and he worked at the West Hollywood Test Center where he turned a blind eye as the cheating happened for $10,000 at a time. 

Niki Williams 

Williams worked as a test administrator at one of the test centers Singer told parents he 'controlled'. She was a teaching assistant for Jack Yates High School in Houston, Texas. 

PARENTS 

Bill McGlashan  

McGlashan is a prolific private equity investor who is the founder and managing partner of the firm TPG Growth. 

He is also at the helm of The Rise Fund, a social impact fund he launched with Bono. 

Gregory and Marcia Abbott 

New York couple Gregory and Marcia Abbott, 68 and 59, were also named. 

Gregory Abbott is the founder and chairman of International Dispensing Corp., a successful food and beverage packaging company. 

The couple, who have homes in New York City and Aspen, Colorado, allegedly paid a total of $125,000 to have someone take the ACT and SAT subject tests for their daughter so she could gain entrance to Duke University. 

Bill McGlashan and Gregory Abbott are pictured

Gamal Abdelaziz

Abdelaziz stepped down as president and COO of Wynn Resorts in 2016.

He is accused of bribing Donna Heinel, the senior women's athletics director at USC, to recruit his daughter for the basketball team in 2017. 

According to court documents, his daughter played high school basketball but was not gifted enough to get recruited as an athlete so he arranged for her to be one.  

He then made a $300,000 'donation' to the fictitious charity run by 'ringleader' Rick Singer and then made monthly $20,000 payments directly to Heinel. 

His daughter got into the college but never joined the basketball team, according to the documents. 

In a phone call with the fixer, they said: 'I’m not going to tell the IRS anything about the fact that your $300,000 was paid to Donna-- Donna Heinel at USC to get [your daughter] into school even though she wasn’t a legitimate basketball player at that level.'   

Jane Buckingham 

Buckingham is the owner of the now defunct market research firm, Youth Intelligence.  She sold the company in 2003. 

She is charged in the scheme for allegedly paying $50,000 to have someone else take her son's ACT exam in July 2018 because he had tonsilitis. 

Buckingham sent a handwriting sample for her son to a test taker and had him take a fake exam at home so he wouldn't know about the fraud, court documents indicate. 

Gamal Abdelaziz, the president and COO of Wynn Resorts (left) and Jane Buckingham, the owner of the now defunct market research firm Youth Intelligence 

Gordon Caplan

Caplan is a financial attorney and partner at the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City. He lives in Connecticut.

He allegedly paid $75,000 to have Singer arrange a proctor to corrected his daughter's answers after she took the ACT in November or December 2018. 

Robert Flaxman 

Flaxman is the CEO, Co-founder, Crown Realty & Development, Inc, a real estate company based in Orange County. 

Gordon Caplan (left) is a financial attorney and partner at the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City. Robert Flaxman (right) is the CEO, Co-founder, Crown Realty & Development

Agustin Huneeus 

Vineyard owner Huneeus owns a range of wines that are produced in Napa Valley. 

He allegedly participated in both the college entrance exam cheating scheme and the college recruitment scheme for his daughter in 2017 and 2018 by conspiring to bribe Heinel and Jovan Vavic, the USC water polo coach, to facilitate his daughter’s admission to USC as a purported water polo recruit, according to the indictment. 

Elisabeth Kimmel is the former president of Midwest Television. She sold it in 2017 for $325million. Agustin Huneeus, whose family owns vineyards in Napa Valley, was also charged 

Elisabeth Kimmel 

Lis and Manuel Henriquez 

Kimmel, of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the former president of Midwest Television. She sold it in 2017 for $325million. 

She allegedly used the scheme to get her daughter into Georgetown and her son into USC by pretending the former was a tennis player and the latter was a pole vaulter. 

Kimmel ultimately facilitated $475,000 in payments to KWF, according to the affidavit.  

Toby MacFarlane 

MacFarlane and his wife Christy are well known on the San Diego social and charity circuit. 

He sits on the board of multiple companies and the family has their own trust but it is not exactly clear what he does. 

Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez

Marjorie Klapper 

Diane and Todd Blake 

I-Hsin "Joey" Chen  

Amy and Gregory Colburn 

Marci Palatella 

Peter Jan Sartorio 

Stephen Semprevivo 

Devin Sloane 

John Wilson

Robert Zangrillo 

Steven Masera 

William Ferguson 

Martin Fox

Jorge Salcedo 

Bruce and Davina Isackson 

Mikaela Sanford

David Sidoo

Michelle Janavs   

Douglas Hodge 

Advertisement