Prosecutors Announce 13 People, Including Gordon Caplan, Will Plead Guilty in Admissions Scandal
Gordon Caplan, former co-chairman of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, left, leaves the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston with his lawyer Joshua Levy, of Ropes & Gray, right, after his initial appearance in the college admissions bribery scandal April 3. Photo: Jack Newsham/ALM
Former law firm leader Gordon Caplan, television actress Felicity Huffman and 12 other people are set to plead guilty in the college admissions bribery scandal, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said Monday.
Caplan, the former Willkie Farr & Gallagher chairman, announced his intention to plead guilty last week. Caplan and Huffman are among 12 parents expected to be charged by information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, the prosecutors said. One parent, Bruce Isackson, is also pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the IRS, the government said; he and his wife Davina agreed to cooperate.
Michael Center, the University of Texas at Austin's former men's tennis head coach, will also plead guilty to a fraud conspiracy count, prosecutors said.
The maximum sentence for the conspiracy count that most of the defendants will be pleading guilty to is 20 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines generally call on judges to impose much milder terms than the statute allows, however.
The announcement marks the beginning of the end of a large swathe of the college admissions scandal prosecution, also called Operation Varsity Blues. Fifty people were charged last month by prosecutors in Boston with cooperating in a fraud ring that centered on William Singer, a college admissions consultant who helped parents bribe coaches and test administrators so their children had a better chance of getting into prominent schools.
Court dates in connection with the guilty pleas have not been set, according to court records.
