Financier in college cheating scandal gets longest sentence yet – 9 months

Feb. 7 (UPI) – Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of investment company Pimco, was sentenced Friday to nine months in prison – the harshest punishment yet in the nationwide college admissions scandal. A federal judge in Boston sentenced Hodge to prison and ordered him to pay a $750,000 fine. Prosecutors say he paid $850,000 over several years to falsify admissions criteria and get four of his children admitted to prestigious universities in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. They were to be admitted as soccer and tennis athletes, the charges said. Hodge, who was also accused of trying to get another child into Loyola Marymount University, was the 14th parent in the national scandal to be sentenced since the operation, code named "Varsity Blues," was announced last year.

Prosecutors said although he already enjoyed "extreme, almost unfathomable privilege" as CEO of Pacific Investment Management Co., Hodge used a "back door" method to gain college admittance for his children and used it longer and more often than the other 35 parents in the scam. The court ordered Hodge to 500 hours of community service. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton called his actions "appalling and mind-boggling at the same time."

Prosecutors, who regarded Hodge as the most culpable of all parents involved in the case by repeatedly using the scheme for the advantage of his children, argued for a two-year prison sentence. Hodge pleaded guilty last fall to charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, hones services mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. "As a parent, I have counseled my children to listen to that inner voice that tells them right from wrong. Well, I did not listen to mine," he said in court. Thirty-one people involved in the scandal have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty, and the other 22 have requested trial. Of the 53 people charged, 36 are parents or college coaches.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/02/07/Financier-in-college-cheating-scandal-gets-longest-sentence-yet-9-months/8161581100590/?ts_tn_us=4