[00:00.60]American government lawyers on Tuesday charged 49 people [00:06.92]in a $25-million plot to reportedly buy admission to top colleges. [00:15.64]The schools involved include Yale, Stanford and Georgetown University. [00:23.12]Those charged include Hollywood actors [00:26.73]Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, [00:30.36]test administrators, business leaders and college coaches. [00:36.80]Federal lawyers in Boston accused William Singer [00:41.56]of organizing the reported plot. [00:45.04]Singer owns the college counseling business [00:48.40]Edge College & Career Network, [00:51.76]as well as an organization called The Key Worldwide Foundation. [00:58.60]The lawyers said Singer offered people up to $75,000 [01:04.88]to take college entrance exams for students. [01:09.64]They also accused him of paying college coaches [01:13.92]to accept students as sports players [01:17.32]even if they had never played the sport. [01:21.08]In some cases, the lawyers said, Singer worked with parents [01:26.97]to create false academic and athletic successes for the students, [01:32.84]including putting student's faces [01:36.01]on the images of real athletes in action. [01:40.92]U.S. attorney Andrew Lelling said the plot was set up [01:45.84]to guarantee admissions to top colleges for students, [01:50.72]in his words, "not on their merits, but through fraud." [01:57.08]Lelling said Singer used Key Worldwide Foundation [02:02.04]as a front for parents to pay for the services. [02:07.20]He said parents paid between $100,000 to $6.5 million [02:14.20]for the services. [02:17.08]Some of the parents reportedly claimed the payment [02:20.80]as charitable donations to lower their taxes. [02:25.48]Lelling said Singer then used the money [02:28.80]to bribe college coaches and test administrators. [02:34.36]Lelling said Yale University's women's soccer coach took $400,000 [02:41.52]to accept a student who did not even play soccer at a competitive level. [02:48.60]That student's family reportedly paid Singer $1.2 million for the service. [02:57.52]Lelling called the plot the biggest college admissions scam [03:02.28]ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department. [03:07.48]The accused parents reportedly sought to help their children [03:12.56]get admitted to schools including University of California - Los Angeles, [03:19.20]University of Southern California, and University of Texas. [03:25.76]However, Lelling said the colleges were not involved in the plot. [03:32.03]Singer admitted guilt to the charges. [03:37.32]Lelling also charged 33 parents with involvement in the plot. [03:44.28]They included actors Felicity Huffman, [03:47.92]known for her role in the television show Desperate Housewives, [03:52.92]and Lori Loughlin, who appeared [03:55.89]in another long-running show called Full House. [04:00.68]Among wealthy business leaders charged [04:03.72]were Manuel Henriquez, the chief of Hercules Capital; [04:08.72]Gamal Abdelaziz, president of Wynn Resorts Development; [04:14.12]Gordon Caplan, head of the well-known [04:17.03]international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher; [04:21.36]and Gregory Abbott, founder and chairman [04:25.44]of International Dispensing Company. [04:29.28]During a phone call with one wealthy parent, [04:32.60]Singer reportedly said of his business: [04:36.08]"What we do is help the wealthiest families in the U.S. [04:40.76]get their kids into school..." [04:44.56]I'm Caty Weaver.