Getting your kid into Yale with bribes, fixed SAT scores and fake athletic feats is morally indefensible. But in the courtroom it may be a different story.
As the well-heeled parents in the U.S. college admissions scandal negotiate pleas -- or, less likely, fight it out at trial -- lawyers have some strategies in mind.
“You’re going to have parents saying, ‘Look, I was just trying to help my child. My intent was not to break any laws,’” said Diane Ferrone, a criminal defense lawyer in New York. “I think that the prospect of any of them serving any time in jail is highly unlikely.”
The Justice Department has already sent a signal of leniency by charging almost all the parents with a criminal complaint, which can be filed to start a case, instead of a formal indictment.
That’s “a billboard-sized shoutout inviting parents to come in, plead guilty and accept responsibility, or be dragged through an ugly formal charging process or even an indictment,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former enforcement lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and ex-prosecutor and now a partner at Dickinson Wright in Washington.
The extent to which prosecutors will plea-bargain with the defendants remains to be seen. At a news conference last Tuesday to announce the charges, they said some parents had committed tax fraud by claiming the bribes were charitable contributions. But they also said none were charged with that crime. That gives the government leeway -- though no obligation -- to let parents bargain for a misdemeanor tax charge that may carry no prison time at all.
Frenkel called it “a shot across the bow” that “you may be facing felonies, but the opportunity is there to resolve this as a tax case,” rather than face the current charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest-services mail fraud.
In all, the U.S. charged 50 people in the nationwide scandal, calling it the biggest college admissions scam ever. That includes 33 parents from fields including law, high finance and entertainment. They are alleged to have paid tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and bribes to admissions consultant William Rick Singer, entrance exam proctors and university sports coaches to win their children places at elite schools such as Yale, Stanford and Georgetown -- $25 million in all.
Singer pleaded guilty to charges including obstruction and racketeering conspiracy, having agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s yearlong investigation by secretly recording calls with clients and wearing a wire for visits.
The charge against the parents carries a maximum prison term of 20 years, but under federal sentencing guidelines they are certain to face a far shorter time behind bars, if any. For each defendant who pleads or is found guilty, the judge will consider the nature of the crime, the sums involved and whether the parent has a criminal record, as well as mitigating factors such as a defendant’s cooperation and acceptance of responsibility, plus any health concerns.