Hodge and his lawyers had previously said the donations to the colleges were legitimate. After prosecutors increased the pressure on him by adding a money-laundering charge, he pleaded guilty in October.
In 2008, prosecutors said, Hodge sent two checks for $75,000 each made out to Gordon Ernst, then Georgetown’s head tennis coach, who has pleaded not guilty to racketeering. Hodge paid more bribes directly to Ernst for another child in 2010, mailing the payments to his home, they said. Hodge believed the bribes were going to support the college’s tennis program, his lawyers said at one point.
In 2013 and 2014, Hodge secured two admissions at USC through payments made to Singer’s nonprofit foundation and through checks made out to the USC “women’s athletic board,” prosecutors said.
After Singer began cooperating with the government in 2018, Hodge was secretly recorded discussing with him the cost of using the scheme to win admission to Loyola Marymount University. He was willing to pay more than $200,000, according to prosecutors.
Before Gorton handed down Hodge’s sentence, defense attorney Brien O’Connor argued for leniency, saying his client had led a life “dedicated to providing thousands of children from impoverished backgrounds with the opportunity to improve their lives.”
O’Connor said Hodge had mentored underprivileged students and paid for their private high school tuition. He pointed to Global Girls Leading Our World, which Hodge and his wife founded in 2012, and an orphanage in Cambodia that Hodge and his wife funded.
“Doug is a loving, all-in, supportive parent,” O’Connor told Gorton, noting that the two youngest of his seven children were adopted from Morocco. “He never missed a child’s birthday, and flew back from Australia to attend his son’s birthday one year and headed back 24 hours later.”
Gorton ordered Hodge to report to prison on March 20 and said he would recommend Hodge serve his time near New York City, where his family lives.
The case is U.S. v. Sidoo, 19-cr-10080, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.