A federal judge in Boston has begun sentencing defendants in the college admissions scandal case.
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Earlier this month federal judge Indira Talwani sentenced the actress Felicity Huffman to 14 days in prison. Ms. Huffman had already pled guilty to paying $15,000 to Peter “Rick” Singer to arrange for an SAT proctor to correct her daughter’s incorrect answers and artificially raise her score.
This week, Judge Talwani is scheduled to sentence about 10 more parents who have been arrested in connection with the scheme. First up was Devin Sloane, the CEO of a Los Angeles-based water treatment company. Sloane had pled guilty this past May to paying Singer $250,000 to get Sloane’s son accepted into the University of Southern California as a supposed water polo recruit.
Today, she sentenced Mr. Sloane to four months in prison, perform 500 hours of community service and a fine of $95,000.
The government had sought a sentence of one year (plus a day for some reason) plus a year of supervised release, a $75,000 fine, and an undefined additional financial penalty in the form of restitution and forfeiture of his assets. His lawyers had sought to limit punishment to community service.
A number of factors went into determining Sloane’s sentence. His illegal payment to Singer was much greater than Huffman’s but, as reported in The Los Angeles Times, Judge Talwani has decided that the level of guilty behavior, such as the degree of deception, trying to cover up wrong-doing and evade responsibility, will matter more than the amount paid to Singer.
According to government documents, Sloane accepted responsibility for his actions. On the other hand, he involved his son in the scheme, having him pose in the family pool for a photo-shopped picture of him playing water polo.
Nine more defendants are scheduled to be sentenced this week. The judge obviously intends to be very fact-specific in determining their level of punishment so it is difficult to predict what the week will bring for them.
