Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin have been charged in a complex bribery scam that involved getting their children into prestigious colleges.
On Tuesday morning, TMZ reported that Felicity had been arrested. She will be released on a bond with the promise to show up to a later court date to answer the charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
According to TMZ, Felicity, Lori and 48 others allegedly paid huge bribes to get their kids into various schools, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.
Most of the children apparently had no idea their parents were allegedly involved in a college entrance scam.
The alleged scheme is complex and convoluted and involved a California businessman as a middleman. Apparently the businessman ran the operation, which helped students get into the college of their choice, something that isn't exactly an easy feat. Authorities allege that the parents sent the man a predetermined amount — sometimes up to $6 million – which he would then funnel to an SAT or ACT administrator or a college athletic coach.
If, say, the money went to a college coach, the coach would get involved and list the student as an "athlete," and a fake profile would even be created to stay under the radar. If, though, the money went to an administrator, that person would hire a student to take the SAT/ACT exams in place of someone else. In some cases, the administrators would even correct the wrong answers.
As far as Felicity's case is concerned, NBC News reports that she and her husband, William H. Macy, allegedly made a charitable contribution of $15,000 to participate in a college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of their eldest daughter. Their daughter, the indictment says, was given twice the amount of time to take the SAT as other students and the paid proctor agreed to secretly correct her answers afterwards.
William was not named in the indictment.
In terms of Lori's case, the indictment said Lori and her husband, who are both listed in the indictment, allegedly paid $500,000 to have their two daughters designated as recruits for the crew team at USC, but the girls didn't participate in crew.