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12-03-2019, 11:01 PM
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Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47543036

Felicity Huffman is among more than 40 people charged in a US college cheating scam, according to unsealed court records.

The alleged scheme involved helping students cheat on entrance exams, as well as getting non-athletic students admitted on fake athletic scholarships.

Elite schools Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown were among the destination universities.

The defendants are largely wealthy and also include CEOs of major companies.

According to the charging documents, Ms Huffman made a "charitable contribution" of $15,000 (£11,500) to participate in the scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter.

Ms Huffman was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. She was secretly recorded discussing the scheme with a co-operating witness.
But that "contribution" was small potatoes compared to:

The actress Lori Loughlin, best known for starring in the US sitcom Full House, was among those indicted.

Ms Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli - who was also indicted - "agreed to pay bribes totalling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits" to the University of Southern California (USC) rowing team, the documents said. Both their daughters are currently studying at USC.
and the amounts kept rolling on:

According to the FBI, athletics coaches at various institutions were also involved in the scheme - recommending the fraudulent applicants internally and pocketing bribes in return.

The head women's football coach at Yale University was allegedly paid $400,000 to accept a student who did not even play the sport - and those parents gave Mr Singer $1.2m for arranging the bribe.
How it worked:

Parents including Ms Huffman and Ms Loughlin paid somewhere between several thousand dollars and $6.5m to Edge for its services, authorities said, earning Singer about $25m between roughly 2011 and 2018.

The firm reportedly instructed parents to claim their child had a disability which required extra time for exams.

The FBI said parents were then told to invent an excuse - such as a family wedding - for their students to sit the entrance exams at specific facilities, where staff had been bribed to turn a blind eye to cheating.
Obviously, there is a lot more detail to this case but the examples indicate the nature and size of the crimes committed.

Desperation and greed drive wealthy Americans to crime but the FBI bust the conspiracy - is there a film there .....
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13-03-2019, 11:45 AM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Parents are often driven to extremes to get kids into good schools, happens here too. Some move or pretend to love so they have an address in the preferred school area. Bribes are paid to schools locally one of our schools has a nice new classroom, built and named after a family that were just outside the catchment area but strangely found their children admitted to the school in question. Odd that we thought.
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13-03-2019, 01:58 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Makes you wonder why these `stars` need to do this. Surely their kids already have and will continue to have charmed lives and will want for nothing?
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13-03-2019, 02:04 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Huffman cuffed by FBI agents with guns drawn in early morning raid

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...morning-report

Felicity Huffman, an actress ensnared in an alleged college admissions cheating scandal, was reportedly greeted by FBI agents with their guns drawn Tuesday morning at her Los Angeles home.

The FBI did not use a tactical team to arrest Huffman, but had their guns drawn as a precaution “based on the circumstances during the execution of any warrant,” Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, told Fox News. Eimiller also noted that "the arrest team that executed the warrant at defendant Huffman's location is consistent with the size of the teams that executed warrants at all of the arrest locations today (13 locations)," and that no tactical teams were used.

Huffman made a brief court appearance later Tuesday afternoon where the judge asked her: “I’m not asking you to admit or deny the charges against you but do you understand what the government claims you did?” She replied: “Yes.”

Her husband, actor William H. Macy, sat in court as the judge ordered her released on a $250,000 bond. Huffman is scheduled to appear in court March 29 in Boston.
Don't mess with the FBI .....
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13-03-2019, 02:07 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Thus proving, money can talk. In this case, it might have been best if the money had kept its mouth shut!
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03-04-2019, 11:43 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

College admissions scandal: Judge warns defendants

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47808530

Parents including two US actresses accused in a college admissions scandal have been warned about broaching the case with their children.

"The kids in these cases are witnesses and this could raise obstruction of justice issues," prosecutor Eric Rosen had argued in court.

They were among 13 wealthy parents who made their first appearances in Boston federal court on Wednesday.

During the hearing, US Magistrate Judge M Page Kelley imposed conditions on all the defendants' bail, ordering them to surrender their passports and not to have firearms in their homes.

Neither actress entered a plea, but both said they understood the charges against them.

The pair have not commented publicly since the scandal.
That warning is going to be difficult to administer .....
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13-05-2019, 11:25 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Felicity Huffman pleads guilty in college admissions scandal

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48260657

In a Boston court, the Desperate Housewives star admitted paying $15,000 (£11,500) to have her daughter's exam answers secretly corrected in 2017.

In a statement last month, she said she was in "full acceptance" of her guilt.

Prosecutors recommended a four-month prison term and a $20,000 fine. Huffman, 56, was among 50 charged in the college admissions scandal.

Her plea deal recommendation of four months in prison was at the lower end of sentencing guidelines, which could have carried a custodial term of up to 20 years.

She will be sentenced on 13 September.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...jail-time.html

Meanwhile:

Lori Loughlin appeared to be focusing on fitness as she faces potential jail time for her alleged role in the college admissions scandal that has rocked Hollywood.

The 54-year-old was spotted in spandex leaving a yoga class on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Her outing comes as a source claims that the Full House alum is increasingly more confident that she will never see the inside of a cell, according to People Magazine.
Loughlin must have great lawyers or she is unable to face reality .....
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15-05-2019, 03:45 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

The competition to get into universities in this country is appalling. Uptight parents start grooming their children for acceptance into the best schools from the time they can learn to talk. The pressure is unbelievable on these kids who are sucked into their parents' and universities' game of tightening the qualifications every year. It's always been a mystery to me because I've never, in three decades of hiring, have hired someone because of the school they attended.

What this scandal confirms, and what I always suspected, is that Hollywood actors are just simply not all that intelligent, and they don't have the confidence that their children are all that bright either. Otherwise they would have supported and encouraged their children via the normal channels of education and application.

Jail time and massive fines are appropriate (as based on the bribes they can clearly afford them), but the lesson learned is that we really need to get everyone into university who wants to go, reduce the costs (which would be a natural consequences of increasing admission numbers), and then decide after the first year whether a student can cut it or not.

Education for all those who wanted should always be at the top of the list of any free society.
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15-05-2019, 04:24 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Originally Posted by Judd ->
Makes you wonder why these `stars` need to do this. Surely their kids already have and will continue to have charmed lives and will want for nothing?
Good point. Another is why do universities offer courses for which there is no obvious career path?
MSc in sports performance or ecotourism?
Or how a masters in International Festival & Event management.

These are now all, and many others, offered at the establishment where I got my engineering degree.
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15-05-2019, 06:13 PM
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Re: Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme

Originally Posted by Judd ->
Makes you wonder why these `stars` need to do this. Surely their kids already have and will continue to have charmed lives and will want for nothing?
It seems so:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...jail-time.html

Olivia Jade (one of Loughlin's daughters) is reportedly just now back on speaking terms with her parents after moving out of their home following their arrests.

Sources say she blames them for the destruction of her career on YouTube and the loss of lucrative makeup collaborations.
It seems that everyone and his dog want to be "influencers" nowadays .....
 
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