Felicity Huffman breaks the silence. For the first time, the star of Desperate housewives spoke Friday about his involvement in “Operation Varsity Blues,” a massive corruption scandal to facilitate the entry of high school students into top colleges. The 60-year-old actress admitted paying bribes to falsify her eldest daughter’s college entrance exams.
“I felt like I had to give my daughter’s future a chance,” she said in an interview with Eyewitness News. “It was my daughter’s future, which meant she had to break the law.”
In 2019, Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty in a Boston court to paying $15,000 to inflate her daughter’s results. She spent 11 days in prison, paid a $30,000 fine and performed community service, according to US media.
It seemed like my only option.
In total, around thirty wealthy parents (including actress Lori Loughlin) were linked to this matter. At the center of the scandal was William Singer, former head of a company specializing in exam preparation. He admitted to creating a system that worked well, from cheating on exams to corruption by college sports coaches. Felicity Huffman recounts the influence he supposedly had on her:
“After a year, he started telling me that my daughter would never be accepted into any of the colleges she wanted to attend and I believed him.”
“So, when little by little the criminal project began to be presented to me, it seemed that my only option was to offer my daughter a future,” he continues. “I felt like she would be a bad mother if she didn’t do it. And so I did.”
My fault
William Singer was suspected of receiving approximately $25 million from all parents using the same methods. He cooperated with investigators and recorded his conversations with several parents, including Felicity Huffman. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined $10 million last January.
The actress nominated for an Oscar in the category of best actress in 2006, for transamericaHe also recounts his arrest: “They came to my house. They woke up my daughters pointing a gun at them.”
“Then they cuffed my hands behind my back and I asked them if I could get dressed. I thought it was a joke. I turned to one of the FBI men… and asked him, ‘Is this a joke?'”
In addition, he apologizes to “the academic community”, as well as “to the students and families who make sacrifices and work very hard to follow his path honestly.”
Source: BFM TV
