Felicity Huffman has just arrived to face a judge for her involvement in the massive college bribery scandal.
The “Desperate Housewives” actress appeared in a federal courthouse in Boston Wednesday where she — along with other parents including Lori Loughlin — will reportedly know more about the conditions of their release.
As we first reported … Lori and Felicity could cut plea bargains but prosecutors wanna see the parents do time behind bars. As one official told us, “You can’t have people being treated differently because they have money. That’s how we got to this place. Every defendant will be treated the same.”
Lori and Felicity each face a maximum of 5 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
As we reported … Felicity and Lori — recorded on wiretapped calls discussing the scheme with ringleader William Rick Singer — are accused of paying bribes to help get their kids into elite schools.
Felicity and her husband, William H. Macy, allegedly paid $15k to participate in a college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of their eldest daughter, Sofia Grace, who was given twice the amount of time to take the SAT as other students. The feds say the proctor corrected her answers. She scored 1420 on her SAT … an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT.
Lori and her hubby, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying a whopping $500k to have their 2 daughters — Isabella and Olivia — designated as recruits for the crew team at USC … even though they were never actually on any crew team. Mossimo allegedly sent Singer pics of the girls on rowing machines to make it look like they were indeed athletes.
On the morning the indictment was announced, 7 FBI agents showed up to Felicity’s home with guns drawn and arrested her. The feds also showed up to Lori’s home but she was in Vancouver. Mossimo was nabbed and later released. Lori surrendered the next day.
47 others were also caught up in the massive college bribery scandal the feds dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. The parents are accused of paying off Rick Singer … the alleged ringleader who created a fake non-profit, charitable foundation that served as a front to launder the payments.
The feds also said Singer — who pled guilty to racketeering charges — allegedly instructed the parents they could write off the alleged bribes as tax-deductible”donations” … to his non-profit.
According to court records, the actresses and others allegedly paid as much as $6.5M to get their kids into various schools … including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC. In all, the feds uncovered about $25M in bribes.
Lori — out on $1 million bond — was mum when paps got her out the other day leaving a yoga session. The fallout from the scandal was immediate. Loughlin’s girls withdrew from USC and Loughlin lost gigs with “Fuller House” and Hallmark.