Actress Felicity Huffman and Others to Plead Guilty in College Admissions Scandal
“Prosecutors will be asking for jail time for all defendants, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.”
In the latest development of the college admissions scandal, actress Felicity Huffman has agreed to plead guilty along with more than a dozen others.
Bill Hutchinson reports at ABC News:
Actress Felicity Huffman among 14 to plead guilty in college admissions cheating scandal
Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Huffman is among 14 defendants who have agreed to plead guilty in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scam that rocked elite schools this spring.
Huffman, 56, and the other defendants will each plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to a charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, federal prosecutors said Monday.
She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years probation and a $250,000 fine, based on the prosecutors’ recommendation.
Shortly after the announcement, Huffman released a statement saying she is “ashamed of the pain” she has caused her family.
You can read Huffman’s statement in the tweet below:
Felicity Huffman statement: “I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.” https://t.co/r4UxdrvFju pic.twitter.com/L3Wozk9Y2R
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) April 8, 2019
This tweet contains a list of the other defendants:
Felicity Huffman, 13 other defendants have agreed to plead guilty in college admissions scandal, DOJ says. https://t.co/aZOjNN5JnI pic.twitter.com/wLULgoMZXn
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) April 8, 2019
According to CNN, the prosecutors are actually seeking jail time:
Prosecutors want prison time for Felicity Huffman and other parents who pleaded guilty in college admissions scam
Thirteen wealthy parents, including actress Felicity Huffman, and one coach will plead guilty to using bribery and other forms of fraud as part of the college admissions scandal, federal prosecutors in Boston said on Monday.
Huffman, the “Desperate Housewives” star, pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to a fake charity associated with Rick Singer to facilitate cheating for her daughter on the SATs, the complaint says.
She faces up to 20 years in prison. In exchange for Huffman’s plea, federal prosecutors will recommend incarceration at the “low end” of the sentencing range, a $20,000 fine and 12 months of supervised release. They will not bring further charges…
Prosecutors will be asking for jail time for all defendants, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The defendants are facing anywhere between six to 21 months in prison if convicted or if they plead guilty, the official added, though the exact sentence would depend on a number of factors.
Here’s a video report from the FOX Business Network:
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Talk about coastal elites. They’re all from California or the Northeast.
So who do they need to bribe to get into the most exclusive of prisons….
This is the Blagojevich effect. People from the wrong class don’t know how to get away with graft.
Our country’s political class, on the other hand, is expert at the game of graft.
If these people are truly ashamed of their actions, they wouldn’t have done them in the first place.
They would have been bragging about their kids being in those schools for as long as they lived had they not been caught.
This is just like the phony apologies we hear. They aren’t sorry for the deeds or comments or actions they did, they are sorry they got called out for it. They are sorry they got caught and for the legal position they are in. They are sorry just like every single criminal out there are sorry. Sorrow only because they should face the consequences of their actions.
They should have to serve some jail time. I guarantee none will face 20 years, they might even get the Jussie Smollett treatment and have everything dropped for a nice donation to the DNC.
Why should they be ashamed? The system is rigged, top to bottom.
There is an entire cottage industry full of “consultants” who help kids get into good schools.
The legitimate ones know of more schools, and showcase the less-well-known teaching schools to the kids, so that they get a good match.
In California, the State schools manipulate students’ SAT scores based in skin color. If the right people know you, it is SO much easier to get an internship that leads to a good resume.
Ever hear of legacy admissions? That’s when an alumnus donates to the school over time, until the wee one is of age. Then there are preferred feeder schools, which really designate individuals who are gatekeepers for recommendations.
The only problem with these accused parents is that they started working the system too late.
I see the prosecutors are seeking jail time, but what are the actual odds that they’ll accomplish it?
Either way, saving the time and expense of a trial isn’t a bad thing.
Lori Loughlin did not plead guilty and she AND her husband were charged with Money Laundering today.
Jessie and the Rippers should write Becky a song…or someone can make a lifetime movie about it.
Stamps has toured with the Beach Boys… A maybe they can do a special version of Sloop John B.
I feel so broke up, I wanna go home…
I am having a hard time getting worked up over this. Sure – Huffman and others are guilty of fraud, but the universities have perpetuated a worse fraud for years. Gender Studies, Latino Studies, Peace Studies, Gazeatyournavel Studies – that is pure bigoted flimflammery worse than what these parents did. Why are Huffman & Co facing jail time while university administrators who promote this junk still walking around free while collecting fat paychecks for defrauding the taxpayers?
Bank Executives and University Presidents do not go to jail.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
These people have cheated behind the law to deprive others of their educational access. You better believe they didn’t eat up the minority spots on the class roster, either. They ate up the white privilege spots and are the same losers that do their daily guilt devotions to the gods of grievances.
I would hardly call what some of these schools offer “education”. It appears to me that these boobs were forking over gobs of cash for the privilege of being fleeced by con artists posing as educators.
Selective outrage over fraud is worse than no outrage. When the racketeers and hoodlums running some higher education establishments are held responsible for their crookedness then I will be willing to consign Huffman to the outer darkness.
You are free to your opinion, but a seat in a college class is still a seat that could be occupied by another, including one that is interested in STEM rather than grievance studies.
I do not like the pretenders and poseurs of Hollywood, and do not care an ounce for any of the defendants. I don’t care if they end up bankrupt and homeless and never work again and lose all their friends due to disgrace.
But any significant amount of incarceration for such a thing is a waste of money for the taxpayers. Penal reform is a topic of discussion in politics today, and the best place for reform is with the criminals convicts that have not demonstrated violent tendencies and are not likely to hurt someone if they are outside the confines of a prison campus. I’d be content to see them admit their guilt, incur the conviction on their record, pay a fine, have to do 16 hours of community service on 48 weekends per year for 10 years, and maybe spend 30 days in jail doing menial labor like picking up trash on the side of the road or cleaning up parks.
I can get behind that. They definitely need lessons in humility and morality.
A simple fine and probation won’t do that, even if it’s a high dollar amount.
Is it the role of the penal system to teach humility? I thought it was to keep offenders out of circulation for a while, to threaten punishment as a deterrent to crime (and to impose actual punishments to keep that threat credible against future potential offenders), and to do what it takes to prevent recidivism.
For someone with no younger children, the only one of those that applies is to impose a punishment so that other parents don’t try such cheating. And civil penalties if such suits are brought on behalf of a class of affected students denied admission, for example.
What you propose here, endless hours of volunteering designed to humiliate, reminds me of reeducation in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I cannot approve.
The volunteering would be an alternative to incarceration. Which one do you think the offenders would take if given the option?
The role of the penal system is also to provide the opportunity to reform.
Teaching humility to those that thought they could buy their children’s education seems like a good reform measure to me. Now, if only we could teach their children something (but by now it’s too late).
Seeing laymen argue about this in writing is like watching two fighting over a turnip. You miss the issue. The issue is: what is the purpose of criminal law? The purpose is protect the interests of the public, to deter, to punish, and to vindicate the rights of the injured and society at large rather than having vigilante retribution.
What the parents did it pretty malum prohibitum rather than malum in se. The punishment therefore should not be as harsh as malum in se offenses.
What punishment would be sufficient to protect, deter, punish, and vindicate private and public interests here? Certainly, one does not have to put these offenders in jail for 5 or more years to accomplish that. The range of punishment I outlined above would be enough to disrupt their lives and make them never want to go back before a federal judge again.
Ridiculous.
Even making noise about sentences approaching 20 years is a travesty of justice.
They’re not even saying what the actual crimes are. Paying some sleazebag to help bump up some student who isn’t quite up to the job on his own doesn’t move the needle on the Crime-O-Meter far enough to notice. So they put in something mysterious involving the Post Office, thus making a big federal deal of it. This is a painfully obvious dodge to make a ripple look like something worth noticing. It’s just stupid. I really hate seeing my tax dollars being wasted on stupid. Sure, these people are spoiled, they’re greedy, they’re foolish. But there is no way they should be locked up in cages for that.
First of all, this is nothing more than a hyped-up prosecution to make the DOJ look good. To make sure that people take notice, the whole thing is being presented as a class bias thing; rich people keeping poor athletes from going to prestigious colleges. However, there are very few poor rowing participants in this country.
As to the bribery and anti-fair practices charges, no one really wants to go there. If they did, every case of a business giving preferential treatment to ANY customer, who is willing to pay more for a product or service would result in the customer being charged with a felony. As for bribery, this exposes every maitre d’ in the country, and their customers, in the cross hairs of another felony, unless the person being bribed is a public employee. The only really viable charge would be the various tax charges. Now the DOJ is trying to jack up those charges by claiming money laundering.
Look, the prosecution really doesn’t want any of these cases to go to trial. While this sounds really, really, bad, legally there is a good chance that a jury might question what difference exists between what these parents to get their child admitted and what other parents do to gain admissions for their children by dealing directly with the institutions involved. It would be interesting to see how good the admissions test scores of many of the prosecutors, who attended Ivy League schools, were.
Was what the parents involved in this did wrong? Was it illegal? Yes. But, Lori Laughlin is out half a million dollars. That is several times what the government can fine her. And, her children are no longer enrolled in the school. If she attempted to claim that money as a charitable donation, on her taxes, then she should be prosecuted for that and fined and/or imprisoned in a manner similar to others convicted of the same crime. As that money was to bribe employees of a public institution, she faces a credible charge of bribery of a public official. As to the actions of the the individuals who were not public employees and not involved in paying public employees for preferential treatment for their clients, this is really more of a civil matter, than a criminal one. It is hard to see how these actions defrauded the institutions involved to any degree.
Much ado about nothing.
How the hell is hillary clinton still walking around free?