The 6 most intriguing details from the college admission scandal.

This week the US was rocked by a mammoth college admission scandal, where about 50 well-off parents paid money to get their children into university.

Add into that the fact that TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among those named and charged – and you’ve got an especially intriguing case.

Under the investigation, code name Operation Varsity Blues, the FBI found that dozens of parents had allegedly paid thousands of dollars to the man who ran the operation, William Singer. Singer would allegedly then arrange for these kids to get into university through measures such as bribing officials, paying people to take a test on behalf of the student or faking expertise in athletics.

It seems in most – if not all – cases, the kids did not know what their parents were doing, with transcripts revealing some parents’ concern about covering up their scheming.

At this stage, the universities involved haven’t made announcements on whether the kids will be kicked out of school or not – but it’s a definite possibility.

It’s an interesting story already, but because court documents have been unsealed and allowed to be published, we have learned a lot of detail about the case.

Here are just six of the more bizarre details we’ve learned so far:

1. Felicity Huffman used the words “Ruh-roh!” in an email and her husband  William H Macy got off (so far) on a technicality. 

When Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman was allegedly arranging for her daughter to receive “100 per cent extra time” on her SAT, they were going to achieve this by having an accomplice supervise the test.

Then they hit a snag, prompting Huffman to use a word we thought only Scooby-Doo used.

People have wondered why, if both Felicity Huffman and William H Macy appeared to be conspiring to send their daughters to college based on false test scores, only Huffman was charged.

But it seems that the prosecutors only have email chains and phone transcripts that involve him in plotting their second daughter’s cheating – which they ultimately didn’t go through with.

2. Huffman and Macy allegedly cheated for one daughter, but not the other. 

When it came time to “help” their youngest daughter, the parents enquired, but ultimately decided not to go through with it. Perhaps because they thought she might be able to get a good score on her own?

3. Lori Loughlin – and other parents – were caught on tape thanks to a cooperating witness.

If you're wondering how exactly prosecutors managed to get so much evidence, it appears to have gone down something like this: William Singer, who was the mastermind in the entire plot, was turned into a cooperating witness, in exchange for (presumedly) some sort of leniency.

And then Singer started making recorded phone calls with others involved in the scandal, where they further implicated themselves.

Loughlin's conversation with Singer (CW-1), for instance, happened like this:

SCREENSHOT.

And just like that, the investigators had the actress on record saying she bribed her daughters' way into university.

But it didn't work on every parent:

4. Lori's daughter Olivia Jade was not interested in university. 

Olivia Jade Gianulli, the 19-year-old daughter of Lori Laughlin, was already making it as an Instagram influencer and YouTube vlogger when her mum allegedly bribed her way into the University of Southern California.

And critics have seized on videos and tweets she posted that show her apathetic attitude to university as the sick joke of this scandal.

In a video during her first week of studies in 2018, she complained about not being able to go to Fiji for a modelling shoot because of college.

"But I do want the experience of like game days, partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know," she said.

Just a month ago she sent out a tweet that did little to convince people she truly wanted to be there.

Here was a girl who wasn't that excited about university, yet her parents allegedly committed a crime to get her there.

5. Olivia Jade found out about her mum's arrest while on a yacht, owned by the chairman of the University of Southern California's Board of Trustee. 

It couldn't have been more ironic that Olivia Jade found out her mum had bribed her way into university, while on a yacht owned by a bigwig, Rick Caruso, at that university.

The 19-year-old was on the yacht in the Bahamas because she's good friends with Caruso's daughter Gianna, TMZ reports.

6. Olivia Jade and her sister Isabella are reportedly leaving school 

In an even more ironic twist, it seems the actions Loughlin took because she was so desperate to get her daughters into a good college is exactly why they're dropping out.

According to TMZ, Olivia Jade and her older sister Isabella will not be returning to USC. The university hadn't made any formal decision - or at least one they've announced, but the publication's source says the girls made the call themselves, fearing they'd be bullied if they stayed.