Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman is among at least 40 people charged in a US college cheating scam, according to unsealed court records.

The alleged scheme involved helping students cheat on entrance exams, as well as getting non-athletic students admitted on fake athletic scholarships.

Elite schools Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown were among the destination universities.

There was no suggestion that the schools were involved in wrongdoing.

According to the charging documents, Ms Huffman was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. She was secretly recorded discussing the scheme with a co-operating witness.

The papers said the co-operating witness also met with Ms Huffman and her husband, the actor William H Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them. The witness said the pair “agreed to the plan”. Mr Macy was not indicted.

The actress Lori Loughlin, best known for starring in the US sitcom Full House, was also indicted. Ms Loughlin’s daughters, Isabella Rose, 20, and Olivia Jade, 19, are currently enrolled at the University of Southern California.

The defendants are largely wealthy and also include CEOs of major companies. “These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” said US Attorney Andrew Lelling at a press conference about the case on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors in Boston charged William “Rick” Singer, 58, with running the alleged scheme through his company Edge College & Career Network. Mr Singer is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday in Boston federal court to charges including racketeering, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

In all, 33 parents were charged as well as 13 athletics coaches and associates of Mr Singer’s business.

How did the alleged scheme work?

The documents set out in detail the various elements of the alleged scheme, which was run by a firm called Edge College & Career Network. Parents including Ms Huffman and Ms Loughlin paid somewhere between several thousand dollars and $6.5m to Edge for its services, authorities said.

The firm reportedly instructed parents to claim their child had a disability which required extra time for exams. The FBI said parents were then told to invent an excuse – such as a family wedding – for their students to sit the entrance exams at specific facilities, where staff had been bribed to turn a blind eye to cheating.

Someone working for the firm involved in the scandal either sat the exam for the students, gave students the answers, or corrected their answer papers, the FBI said.

The Edge staff member who assisted in the cheating was briefed on exactly how well to perform, in order not to raise suspicion that a child’s scores had improved too much, the FBI said. In most cases, the students did not know their admission had been paid for with a bribe, but in several the students were involved, officials added.

The firm also allegedly created detailed fake athletics profiles for students – including photo-shopping the faces of potential students on to pictures of athletes found online – allowing students to be recruited on athletic scholarships.

According to the FBI, athletics coaches at various institutions were involved in the scheme – recommending the fraudulent applicants internally and pocketing bribes in return.

“We are not talking about donating a building that will make it more likely for your child to get accepted, we’re talking about deception and fraud,” Mr Lelling said.

“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” he added.

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