Famous Actresses Paid Bundles Of Money To Bribe Their Kids’ Way Into College. Here’s Why.

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged 50 people with involvement in a scheme that allowed rich parents to bribe college and testing officials to smooth the path for their children’s admission into top colleges. According to The Washington Post, the “alleged crimes included cheating on entrance exams, as well as bribing college officials to say certain students were coming to compete on athletic teams when those students were not in fact athletes.” Targeted schools included Yale, Stanford, UCLA, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California.

Caught up in the snare were actresses Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives fame, and Lori Loughlin of Full House. Loughlin and her husband allegedly spent $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters designated “recruits” for the USC crew team; the two daughters were then admitted on that basis. Huffman allegedly paid $15,000 as a faux charitable donation to the Key Worldwide Foundation so her daughter could be admitted to a top college; the money actually went toward paying a third party to correct her daughter’s SAT scores, boosting it to 1420 from 400 points lower on a practice SAT the year earlier.