Felicity Huffman Posts $250K Bail After FBI Nabs Her at Gunpoint
LatestLori Loughlin is still AT LARGE, following her indictment on Tuesday on charges in connection with a massive alleged college admissions scam dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” But fellow alleged fraud conspirator Felicity Huffman appeared in federal court in Los Angeles this afternoon, after reportedly being arrested at home by armed FBI agents. A judge ordered her released on $250,000 bond, i.e. two SAT proxies.
Though reports noted Huffman was arrested “without incident,” she was not arrested without the presence of gun-wielding federal agents. TMZ says the FBI agents showed up at the Desperate Housewives star’s house very early Tuesday morning to take her into custody. The scene sounds wild:
Felicity Huffman knew she was a target of the federal investigation into bribery in the college admissions process … but she had no idea 7 feds would show up at her door Tuesday morning with guns drawn.
Sources familiar with the arrest tell TMZ, 7 FBI agents showed up at Felicity’s Hollywood Hills home at 6 AM and drew their weapons as they ordered Felicity to come out and surrender.
According to Deadline, Huffman later appeared in court alongside 10 other fellow indictees, where she surrendered her passport and answered “yes” when asked if she understood her charges. To recap, Huffman, whose real estate assets are reportedly worth more than $20 million, is accused of making a $15,000 donation to the Key World Foundation, a charity organization run by a man named William Singer that allegedly served as a front for a college admissions bribery scheme.
Huffman allegedly made the donation so Singer could arrange for someone to correct the wrong answers on her eldest daughter’s SAT test; her daughter ended up scoring significantly higher on that test than she did on her PSATs one year prior. Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, was mentioned in the indictment but not named, though he did show up in court on Tuesday during Huffman’s arraignment.
Sadly, those of you jonesing for Aunt Becky’s perp walk pics will have to wait until Wednesday. Loughlin was out of the country when the indictment came in, and TMZ says she’s agreed to surrender tomorrow morning. Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli allegedly paid $500,000 to fake their daughters’ way into the University of Southern California, getting them falsely designated as recruits to USC’s crew team. Giannulli’s bond was set at $1 million on Tuesday, according to Variety.
No word yet from Loughlin’s daughter, influencer and current USC student Olivia Jade Giannulli, who does not appear to be on the crew team but does make 10-minute YouTube videos detailing her Urban Outfitters bodysuits.
Note that Loughlin and Huffman were but two of 45 rich people indicted on Tuesday. One such indictee was Jane Buckingham, a so-called “millennial expert” accused of making a a $50,000 “charitable donation” to the Key World Foundation to get someone to take the ACTs for her son so he could get at least a 34 (out of 36). “I need you to get him into USC, and then I need you to cure cancer and [make peace] in the Middle East…You know, Harvard, the rest of it,” she joked to Singer, according to the indictment. “I have faith in you.”
Though neither Buckingham’s son nor daughter (for whom she also allegedly discussed getting an ACT surrogate, though it doesn’t look like she got around to doing it) were named in an indictment, like Olivia Jade, they’re also reportedly teen influencers. It sounds like the son had no idea his mother manipulated his scores for him.
What a mess! The good news is, it’ll be super easy for Ryan Murphy to cast the next season of American Crime Story.