In a major college admissions scandal that laid bare the lengths some wealthy parents will go to get their children into competitive American universities, federal prosecutors charged 50 people Tuesday in a scheme to buy spots in the freshman classes at Yale, Stanford and other big name schools.

Thirty-three well-heeled parents were charged in the case, including Hollywood celebrities and prominent business leaders, and prosecutors said there could be additional indictments to come.

Also implicated were top college athletic coaches, who were accused of accepting millions of dollars to help admit undeserving students to a wide variety of colleges, by suggesting they were top athletes.

The parents included television star Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli; actress Felicity Huffman; and William E. McGlashan Jr., a partner at private equity firm TPG, officials said.

The scheme unveiled Tuesday was the Justice Department’s largest-ever college admissions prosecution, an investigation that involved 200 agents nationwide and resulted in charges against 50 people in six states.

Authorities say the parents of some of the nation’s wealthiest and most privileged students sought to buy spots for their children at top universities, not only cheating the system but also potentially cheating other hardworking students out of a chance at a college education.

In many of the cases, prosecutors said, the students were not aware that their parents were doctoring their test scores and lying to get them into school. Federal prosecutors did not charge any students or universities with wrongdoing.

“The parents are the prime movers of this fraud,” Andrew E. Lelling, U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts, said Tuesday.

At the center of the case was William Singer, founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key.

Authorities said Singer used The Key and its nonprofit arm, Key Worldwide Foundation, which is based in Newport Beach, California, to help students cheat on their standardized tests and to pay bribes to the coaches who could get them into college with fake athletic credentials.

Singer used The Key as a front, allowing parents to funnel money into an account without having to pay any federal taxes.

Parents paid Singer about $25 million from 2011 until February 2019 to bribe coaches and university administrators to designate their children as recruited athletes, which effectively ensured their admission, according to the indictment.

Singer appeared in federal court in Boston on Tuesday afternoon and pleaded guilty to counts of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.