Felicity Huffman in Federal Custody, Warrant Still out on Lori Loughlin for College Admissions Scam

Felicity Huffman was arrested in connection with the college admission scam on Tuesday, but Lori [...]

By Michael Hein

Felicity Huffman was arrested in connection with the college admission scam on Tuesday, but Lori Loughlin was reportedly not at home when federal agents tried to take her into custody.

Both Huffman and Loughlin were among the high-profile arrests on Tuesday morning when federal prosecutors opened a case against an alleged college admission scam. The two acclaimed TV actresses are accused of bribing esteemed colleges to admit their children. On Tuesday, NBC reporter Andrew Blankenstein revealed that Loughlin was not yet in custody.

"Actress Felicity Huffman is in Federal custody after being arrested at her home without incident," Blankenstein tweeted. "There is an arrest warrant out for actress Lori Loughlin, who was NOT in Los Angeles this morning when Federal agents went to her home per officials familiar."

The Full House star's Instagram also went abruptly silent, with all of her posts first disappearing before the entire profile evaporated. Her Twitter page vanished as well.

Loughlin was among 50 people across the nation implicated in a huge college admission cheating scandal on Tuesday. Others arrested included Huffman — known for her role on Desperate Housewives — as well as corporate executives, university coaches, standardized test administrators and other parents, according to a report by CBS News.

The alleged scam centered around one man in California named William Singer. Federal authorities say the parents knowingly paid bribes ranging from thousands of dollars to $6 million dollars to Singer, who would then forward it to the appropriate person to help with admission.

This was either a coach, who would falsely admit the student as an athlete, or an administrator of the SATs or ACTs. The administrator would either correct the student's test answers or even hire a proctor to take it for them.

Singer ran a steady business getting students into Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California. The extensive court documents released on Tuesday noted Loughlin's payment to Singer was disguised as a "charitable contribution."

"These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling.

The court documents also noted that most of the students in these cases did not know about the bribes. So far, Loughlin, Huffman and their families have not issued any response.

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