A former attorney at an international law firm received his sentence in the college admissions scandal Thursday, and it’s twice as long as Felicity Huffman’s, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Gordon Caplan was sentenced to one month in prison for paying $75,000 to boost his daughter’s ACT score in the college admissions scandal.
Caplan pleaded guilty in May to fraud conspiracy and to paying into a fake charity started by William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind of the college admissions scandal, according to CNN.
“As part of the scheme, a paid proctor corrected answers after Caplan’s daughter had completed the test,” CNN reports.
Caplan is the fourth parent to receive prison time in the scandal. Prosecutors asked for Caplan to receive eight months in jail.
Meanwhile: Felicity Huffman, the celebrity mother who was the first parent sentenced in the scandal, received a two-week sentence for paying $15,000 to help her boost her daughter’s SAT score.
Why it matters: Forbes contributor Evan Gerstmann wondered why Caplan received a longer sentence than Huffman when they admitted to the same crime.
One might consider the fact that Caplan paid more money (he paid $75,000 compared to Huffman’s $15,000). But Judge Talwani previously said the amount parents paid wouldn’t be a factor.
A second consideration could be that Caplan is a lawyer, which means he knew the laws he was breaking more thoroughly.
“The disparity might be a result of Ms. Huffman’s celebrity or it could be a result of having won over the Judge’s sympathies,” Gerstmann wrote. “As noted in an earlier post, the Judge had very kind words for Huffman at sentencing. Huffman had played up that she found motherhood ‘bewildering’ and that her daughter has a learning disability.”