Douglas Hodge, former chief executive of Pimco, sentenced to nine months over bribes totaling $850,000

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The former head of a top investment firm was sentenced on Friday to nine months in prison – the harshest sentence of any of the parents caught up in the college admissions bribery scandal.

Felicity Huffman released early from 14-day prison sentence – report Read more

Douglas Hodge, a retired chief executive of the investment management firm Pimco, pleaded guilty on Friday to money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

The judge added to the sentence two years of supervised release, a $750,000 fine and 500 hours of community service, a spokeswoman for the Boston US attorney Andrew Lelling said in an email.

Although 9 months is far shorter than the two-year sentence prosecutors sought, so far Hodge’s has been the longest sentence handed down for any of the 15 defendants who have admitted guilt since the nationwide cheating scandal came to light last March – a conspiracy that shone a spotlight on the backdoor paths into the country’s most elite colleges reserved for children of the wealthy and famous.

While most of the parents are believed to have bribed college coaches to classify one or two of their children as athletes to greatly improve chances of college acceptance, prosecutors say Hodge paid bribes to get at least four of his seven children into top universities and tried to do so with a fifth child.

That meant Hodge was more deeply engaged, and for a longer period of time, than other parents charged in the scandal, prosecutors argued.

“There is no term in the English language that describes your conduct as well as the Yiddish term of chutzpah,” Judge Nathaniel M Gorton told Hodge before delivering the sentence, the New York Times reported.

“You need to pay a significant and conspicuous price for unconscionable, egregious criminal conduct in order to deter you and others who can afford it from the blatant misuse of your good fortunes.”

Prosecutors called Hodge, 62, among “the most culpable” of parents charged. Unlike 14 other defendants who received prison terms ranging from one day to six months, prosecutors said Hodge and three others who entered guilty pleas in October deserve stiffer sentences.

“They are repeat players, who engaged in the conspiracy again and again, over years,” Lelling said in a sentencing memo.

Hodge paid bribes totaling $850,000 over nearly 11 years to get two of his children into Georgetown University and two others into the University of Southern California with embellished skills and qualifications.

The $325,000 Hodge paid for a son and his eldest daughter to enter Georgetown University went to the school’s tennis coach. He also paid $525,000 to have another daughter and son admitted to the University of Southern California as soccer and football recruits.

Prosecutors said he also tried to get a fifth child into Loyola Marymount University, but that son was denied admission based on his academic qualifications.

A group of students filed a class-action lawsuit last year in federal court against Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and other schools involved in the case, claiming they were denied a fair shot at admission. Applicants who played by the rules were victimized when rich and famous parents paid bribes that enabled unqualified students to get into highly selective universities, they argued.

“Each of the universities took the students’ admission application fees while failing to take adequate steps to ensure that their admissions process was fair and free of fraud, bribery, cheating and dishonesty,” the lawsuit said.

In all, 53 people have been charged in the college admissions scandal, including the actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Huffman pleaded guilty and served less than two weeks in prison, while Loughlin pleaded not guilty. The case revolves around consultant William “Rick” Singer, who admitted in March that he facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and bribed sports coaches to present his clients’ children as fake athletic recruits.

Singer, who has yet to be sentenced, is cooperating with prosecutors.

Hodge had said that Singer falsely told him his money would go toward university programs and underprivileged student athletes, but admitted that he failed to pull out of the scheme once he learned of Singer’s deception.

“For that, I am deeply ashamed and remorseful,” he wrote in a letter to the judge.

At the hearing, Hodge told the judge in a short speech that his actions weren’t driven by ego but by his “own transformative educational experiences and my deep parental love”.

His lawyers pointed to the philanthropy and devotion to children as a reason why Hodge should be allowed to split incarceration with in-home detention.

The New York Times reported that one prosecutor acknowledged Hodge’s contributions to causes like expanding educational opportunities for disadvantaged children, but called his hypocrisy “stunning”.