
In March 2019, 50 people, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, were charged in 'Operation Varsity Blues', the largest known college admissions fraud scheme in US history.
Led by Rick Singer, who was later dubbed the "mastermind" of the scam, dozens of wealthy parents paid more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to bribe their children's way into elite US universities.
The college admissions scandal, which was run out of a small college preparation company in Newport Beach, California, relied on bribes, phoney test takers, and even doctored images to land college spots for the children of actors, entrepreneurs, and influential business owners.
Watch the trailer for Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal below. Post continues after video.
While 33 parents were charged in the case, actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin ultimately became the faces of the scandal.
Huffman, best known for her role on Desperate Housewives, was the first parent sentenced in the college admissions scandal after paying US$15,000 to boost her daughter's SAT scores. As a result, Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison and 250 hours of community service.
Loughlin "agreed to pay bribes totalling $500,000 in exchange for having her two daughters designated as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team," despite the fact her daughters weren't actually gifted in rowing.
She was sentenced to two months in prison, while her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was sentenced to five months.
But outside of the crimes of Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, there's a lot more to the college admissions scandal.
New Netflix documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, follows the case from start to finish using reenactments of wiretapped conversations recorded by the FBI.
Below, we share the most intriguing things we learned from the documentary.
Rick Singer's business was legitimate at first.
Rick Singer's business, The Key Worldwide Foundation, was at the centre of the college admissions scandal.
But as per Operation Varsity Blues, it seems Singer's business was legitimate at first.
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