The Craziest Details From the College Cheating Scandal That Got Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin Charged

Here’s a Mad Libs–level mélange of seemingly unrelated subjects: Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin, Ivy League colleges, and bribery. What do they all have in common? The answer is Tuesday’s most bizarre news item, which caused the Internet to positively erupt: A nationwide cheating scandal busted by the Justice Department has revealed that administrators, coaches, and parents—including beloved TV actresses Huffman and Loughlin—have been scheming to get kids into college via bribes, falsified athletic recruitment, fradulent SAT scores and even . . . Photoshop. It’s a plot line from Desperate Housewives on Adderall, and here are the craziest details from this latest, insane addition to the grifter canon.

According to the criminal complaint, between 2011 and 2018, about $25 million in bribes were paid to college coaches and administrators at Yale, Stanford, UCLA, Georgetown, the University of San Diego, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, and the University of Southern California, among others. Among those listed as being charged are two ACT/SAT administrators, an exam proctor, one college administrator, nine coaches, and 33 parents. The center of the operation was a California man named William “Rick” Singer, who would bribe test administrators to allow students to cheat or hire a proctor to correct students’ answers after they took tests, as well as bribe coaches to designate students as recruited athletes. He used money he received as donations from parents to his nonprofit Key Worldwide Foundation. The government’s investigation was called (if you can believe it) Operation Varsity Blues. Below, all the craziest details from the scandal.

Felicity Huffman is accused of paying $15,000 to doctor her daughter’s SAT scores.

Huffman was taken into custody on Tuesday and is named in the criminal complaint; her husband, the actor William H. Macy was not named and has not been charged, though he appears in the document as “spouse.” (Macy also discussed the “stressful” process of college applications just two months ago.) In an email to a cooperating witness, Huffman wrote, “Ruh Ro! Looks like [my daughter’s high school] wants to provide own proctor.”

An old tweet from Huffman asking for “hacks for the back-to-school season” accordingly made the rounds on Twitter.

Lori Loughlin and her husband were charged with paying $500,000 to have their daughters designated as recruits for the USC crew team. Loughlin, former Full House star and currently on Netflix’s Fuller House, is married to designer Mossimo Giannulli, who founded the popular Mossimo clothing line that was sold at Target. Their daughters allegedly gained entrance into USC by posing as athletic recruits on the crew team, even taking a picture on an ergometer to look like they participated in the sport, though they did not. Giannulli was also taken into custody on Tuesday. Loughlin has two daughters, Olivia Jade and Bella, who have semi-large Instagram followings. Olivia Jade took part an Amazon-sponsored Instagram photo shoot in her USC dorm room.

The masterminds of the scheme used Photoshop to put students’ photos on athletes’ bodies.

It also seems like parents helped stage photos for their kids and submitted photos of their handwriting.

Loughlin and Huffman could spent five years in prison.

Both actors are being charged with “conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud,” which could lead to up to five years in jail, though they will likely appeal. Huffman is set to appear in the Netflix miniseries on the Central Park Five case, debuting in May.