Two high-profile actresses and a slew of top business executives, including a former head of Pimco and a founder of Hercules Capital, were among 50 people charged in a $25 million cheating scheme to help wealthy students to gain admission to top colleges, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Suspects allegedly paid bribes to sports coaches and administrators to help get the students admitted to institutions like Yale, Stanford, the University of Southern California, and Georgetown, regardless of athletic or academic abilities.

Douglas Hodge, former chief operating officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO). Galit Rodin | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling of Massachusetts said the colleges are not co-conspirators and the schools themselves have not been charged. The scheme involved cheating on SAT and ACT exams on behalf of students and bribing college administrators and athletic coaches to recruit students. Among those charged are Douglas Hodge, a former CEO of Pimco; William McGlashan Jr., a senior executive at TPG Capital; Agustin Huneeus, head of the Huneeus vineyard in Napa Valley; and Gordon Caplan, co-chairman of international law firm Willkie Farr.

Also charged were:

— Manuel Henriquez, chairman and CEO of Hercules Capital. Henriquez stepped aside early Wednesday in the wake of the charges; — Robert Flaxman, founder and CEO of real estate development firm Crown Realty & Development, which says it has a portfolio value over nearly $600 million for properties primarily in California, Arizona, Virginia, Idaho and North Carolina; — Robert Zangrillo, CEO of Dragon Global, an investment company. Dragon Global's website says its funds have managed investments of more than $1 billion in companies that now have over $500 billion market value, including Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Jet.com and Ulta.

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli. Donato Sardella | WireImage | Getty Images

Actresses Felicity Huffman, who starred in ABC's "Desperate Houswives," and Lori Loughlin, who appeared in ABC's "Full House," were charged, along with Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli, founder of the American fashion company Mossimo. William Singer, CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation, was identified by authorities as the ringleader of the scheme. Others charged include owners of a media company, private equity firm and real estate development firm. (See full list below) The indictment accuses those charged of committing crimes between 2011 and 2019. Charges include conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. For college exams, those charged in some cases posed "as the actual students, and in others by providing students with answers during the exams or by correcting their answers after they had completed the exams," according to the criminal complaint. It also said that in many cases, the students were unaware of the cheating schemes. In some instances, pictures of students playing sports were staged and some pictures even used Photoshop to insert applicants' faces onto the bodies of real athletes and creating false athlete profiles, investigators said.

Actress Felicity Huffman is seen inside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles, on March 12, 2019. David McNew | AFP | Getty Images

Huffman "made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 ... to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. The actress later made arrangements for her younger daughter "before deciding not to do so," according to court documents. She was also accused of paying someone to proctor her daughter's SAT and correct wrong answers. Loughlin and her husband allegedly agreed to "pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew," the complaint said. Hodge, the ex-Pimco head, "agreed to use bribery to facilitate the admission of two of his children to USC as purported athletic recruits," according to the criminal complaint.

The following people were charged, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Boston: The following defendants were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud: Gregory Abbott, 68, of New York, and his wife, Marcia Abbott 59. He is founder and chairman of International Dispensing Corp., a food and beverage packaging company. Gamal "Aziz" Abdelaziz, 62, of Las Vegas, former president and executive director of Wynn Macau resort. Diane Blake, 55, of San Francisco, an executive at retail merchandising firm. Todd Blake, 53, of San Francisco, an entrepreneur and investor. Jane Buckingham, 50, of Beverly Hills, Calif., CEO of a boutique marketing company Trendera, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles. Gordon Caplan, 52, of Greenwich, Conn., co-chairman of Willkie Farr, which says it has 700 lawyers in 10 offices in six countries. I-Hin "Joey" Chen, 64, of Newport Beach, Calif., operates a provider of warehousing and related services for the shipping industry. Amy Colburn, 59, of Palo Alto, Calif. Gregory Colburn, 61, of Palo Alto, Calif. Robert Flaxman, 62, of Laguna Beach, Calif., founder and CEO of real estate development firm Crown Realty & Development.

CEO of Crown Realty Robert Flaxman (R) hides under a hoodie as he leaves the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and US Courthouse after he and several others attended initial hearings following their arrests today in connection with an alleged $25 million nationwide bribery scheme to get students into elite universities, in Los Angeles on March 12, 2019. David McNew | AFP | Getty Images