CEO from California Sentenced to Three Weeks in Prison Over College Admissions Scandal
“also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine”
Three weeks in jail? The penalties in this scandal have been pretty light so far.
CBS News reports:
CEO sentenced to 3 weeks in college admissions scandal
Jane Buckingham, a marketing CEO in California, was sentenced Wednesday to three weeks in prison and a year of supervised release as part of the college cheating scandal. Buckingham, 50, was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
Starting in 2018, Buckingham agreed to pay $50,000 for her son’s participation in a college entrance exam cheating scheme, according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. As part of the scheme, Buckingham arranged for her son to take the ACT exam at a center in Houston “controlled” by William “Rick” Singer, where purported proctor Mark Riddell could correct his answers.
But after her son was unable to fly to Houston due to a medical condition, the press release states, Riddell took the ACT for him in a Houston hotel. Buckingham administered a fake exam to her son at her home in Los Angeles. The Associated Press reports Riddell scored a 35 out of 36.
Three days later, Buckingham donated $35,000 to Singer’s “sham” charity, the Key Worldwide Foundation, the press release stated, and told Singer that her ex-husband would pay the remaining $15,000.
In October 2018, Buckingham told Singer that she wanted to use the same scheme to help her daughter, the press release stated — but she was arrested before she could move forward.
In May 2019, she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Three weeks and 40K? Ridiculous.
They better throw the book at the criminals (Riddell, Singer, et al) on the other side of the line.
The jail sentences are more symbolic than anything. The real punishment is what is happening to these college students. In every case I’ve seen, they’ve been kicked out of the university they were going to and are now going to have a difficult time finding a new school that will admit them.
I wouldn’t mind if the fines were increased, especially if they were used to fund scholarships but that’s probably just wishful thinking.
They need more than that.
If the children are complicit, they deserve to pay some form of restitution to the community that covers their role in denying other deserving students of admission.
Three weeks in jail? The penalties in this scandal have been pretty light so far.
Can someone explain to me, like I’m five, why this is criminal? Or if it is, why a jail sentence is warranted? Because this:
one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud
…sounds suspiciuously like one of those cactchall charges they use when there isn’t an actual crime to charge anybody with.
THANK YOU! I am not entirely sure how this is an actual crime. I think it is unfair and should not be done (but let’s be honest, who was actually surprised by this? Not anyone who actually attended a college!)
But it should be a mark against the colleges themselves – seriously: you did not notice that this star athlete couldn’t compete? And cannot even get grades to allow a star quarterback to stay in college? Why did the colleges themselves not do something about the situation? I am not sure that the punishments are the .gov responsibility.
my 2 cents, for what it is worth