A former private equity executive will plead guilty to federal charges in the college admission scandal and is expected to be sentenced to three months in prison, prosecutors said on Friday.
William E. McGlashan, Jr., 57, a former senior executive at TPG Capital, paid $ 50,000 to have his son’s ACT exam grades secretly corrected, the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
McGlashan was among dozens of accused parents in March 2019 after the FBI investigation of “Operation Varsity Blues”.
The scheme involved wealthy parents who paid to raise their children’s grades on college exams or to be fraudulently admitted as student-athletes, or both in some cases.
McGlashan, of Mill Valley, Calif., Paid the scheme’s creator, William “Rick” Singer, who then bribed a test taker to have an inspector secretly alter the student’s responses to the ACT exam, prosecutors said.
He agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of electronic fraud and electronic fraud of honest services; help and complicity, according to court documents.
A court settlement provides for a three-month prison term and a $ 250,000 fine. It must still be accepted by a court. McGlashan’s lawyers declined to comment.
A criminal complaint contains statements that the son had no idea of the scheme. The attorney, Mark Riddell, corrected the answers after the student took the exam in late 2017, the complaint says. The son returned to the examination after the charges were announced, according to court documents filed by McGlashan’s lawyers.
Singer, Riddell and the test administrator, Igor Dvorskiy, pleaded guilty.
No date has been set for the contest McGlashan will be the 30th father to plead guilty to charges under the general scheme, the US attorney’s office said.
Among those who pleaded guilty and were convicted are actress Felicity Huffman, known for “Desperate Housewives” and other roles; “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her stylist husband Mossimo Giannulli; and Michelle Janavs, heir to the Hot Pockets fortune.
