(Bloomberg) -- The first of 33 parents charged in the U.S. college admissions scandal said he intended to plead guilty as at least two other parents said they are in talks with prosecutors.

As a dozen others are appearing in federal court in Boston on Wednesday, Peter Jan Sartorio, a 53-year-old packaged-food entrepreneur from Menlo Park, California, filed a notice to the court of his intent to plead guilty. Sartorio is accused of paying $15,000 so that a person pretending to proctor the ACT college entrance exam for his daughter would correct her answers. It’s unclear when he will enter his plea.

The two parents in talks with prosecutors are water treatment executive Devin Sloane and marketing expert Jane Buckingham. They were among those to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley to have bail set but, like Sartorio, won a delay of the proceeding.

Buckingham, founder of the marketing firm Trendera, is in discussions over “a resolution to this matter that would not require a hearing before the court,” her attorney Joseph Savage said in a letter Monday seeking the delay in her appearance. John Pappalardo, a lawyer for AquaTecture founder Sloane, filed a similar motion Tuesday, saying his client and the U.S. are also talking.

Actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among those appearing Wednesday. Loughlin and her husband allegedly paid $500,000 in bribes to get both daughters into the University of Southern California as recruited coxswains on the school’s rowing team. Huffman is accused of funneling $15,000 through the ringleader’s charity in exchange for getting her daughter’s SAT answers corrected.

Defense lawyers for Sloane, Buckingham, Huffman and Loughlin didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

The parents are accused of conspiring with college admissions strategist and confessed ringleader William Rick Singer to shower $25 million in bribes on entrance exam administrators, a surrogate test taker and corrupt university sports coaches in order to get their children into Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and other exclusive schools.

Prosecutors are taking a hard line with parents after charging them last month with a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest-services mail fraud. Those who don’t enter into a deal risk an additional charge such as money laundering, which was brought against oncologist Gregory Colburn and his wife, Amy -- two of only three parents to be indicted so far -- after they balked at a plea bargain.

In court on Wednesday, Kelley said she will lift a ban she’d imposed on the defendants and their families on discussing the case with their others, including their spouses and children.

“I don’t think it’s outlandish. I do think it’s unmanageable,” Kelley said, adding: “I would admonish everyone to talk to their lawyers about obstruction of justice because I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

(Updates with judge’s ruling on parents’ discussion of the case.)

--With assistance from Janelle Lawrence.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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