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“I am ashamed,” Huffman said, announcing she will plead guilty to a federal crime, part of an investigation of college admissions fraud unveiled last month by prosecutors in Boston.
In the statement issued by Huffman, she said she wanted to apologize to her family, friends and colleagues, and especially, she said, “to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.”
Huffman was one of 50 people charged. On Monday, prosecutors said 14 people — 13 parents and one coach — would plead guilty in the case. Dates for the formal pleas in court had yet to be set.
The case prosecutors have laid out centers on a college consultant, William Singer, whom Huffman and the other parents hired to guide them through the application process. According to prosecutors, Singer specialized in boosting students’ chances through fraud: He bribed test administrators to allow cheating on college entrance exams and bribed college coaches to designate his clients’ children as recruits to teams for which they were not actually qualified.
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Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were also charged and were not among those who prosecutors said Monday would plead guilty. The government has said 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.
Prosecutors said Huffman and most of the other parents would plead guilty to a single 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 is unclear how much time Huffman and the other parents will receive.
Prosecutors said Monday that one of several coaches charged in the case, Michael Center, former head coach of men’s tennis at the University of Texas at Austin, would also plead guilty to the same crime. Prosecutors said Singer paid Center $60,000 in cash and directed $40,000 to the University of Texas tennis program in exchange for Center designating the son of one of Singer’s clients as a recruit for the tennis team.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.