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According to prosecutors, Huffman paid William Singer, the college consultant at the center of the case, $15,000 to cheat on her older daughter’s SAT.
“My daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her,” Huffman said in a statement. “This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life.”
A total of 33 parents were charged as part of the investigation. One of two Hollywood actresses who were charged, Huffman is the highest-profile parent to admit wrongdoing
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were also charged in the case and have not yet indicated whether they will plead guilty or fight the charges. The government has said that the couple conspired with Singer to pay $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits to the women’s crew team, even though neither actually rowed crew. Loughlin has lost some professional opportunities as a result of the charges — most notably, the Hallmark Channel said that it would stop development of shows that feature her.
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It was not clear what effect Huffman’s acknowledgment of guilt would have on her career. She has roles in several coming movies and television series, including playing prosecutor Linda Fairstein in the miniseries “When They See Us” about the so-called Central Park Five, five black and Hispanic teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in Central Park in 1989.
Huffman was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but it was unclear how much, if any, time Huffman would receive. Sentences in the college admissions case may be affected in part by how much money each parent is alleged to have paid to Singer and others as part of the scheme. Huffman’s payment of $15,000 was among the smallest, according to court documents.
The Justice Department charged 50 people in the case, its largest college admissions prosecution. Those charged included parents, coaches and test administrators for the SAT and ACT. Prosecutors have said that Singer bribed the test administrators to allow cheating on the college entrance exams and bribed the coaches to designate his clients’ children as recruits to teams for which they were not actually qualified. Singer cooperated with prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges.
According to the criminal complaint against Huffman, her husband, William H. Macy, was also involved in the $15,000 payment to Singer. For reasons that are unclear, Macy was not charged.
Among the other parents who had said in recent days that they would plead guilty is Gordon Caplan, a lawyer from Greenwich, Connecticut. His former firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which had placed him on leave, said that in light of his acknowledgment of guilt, he was no longer employed there. On Monday, two other parents, Bruce and Davina Isackson of Hillsborough, California, issued a statement expressing regret and saying that they were cooperating with prosecutors. Davina Isackson’s lawyer, David Willingham, said they both intended to plead guilty.
“No words can express how profoundly sorry we are for what we have done,” the Isacksons said in a statement. “Our duty as parents was to set a good example for our children, and instead we have harmed and embarrassed them by our misguided decisions.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.