Californian Gets 6 Months in Harsh Penalty in College Case

(Bloomberg) -- A California man was sentenced to six months in jail for paying $450,000 in bribes to get his two kids into the University of Southern California, claiming falsely that his 5-foot-5-inch son was a 6-foot-1 basketball recruit and that his daughter was a top-flight soccer player.

Toby MacFarlane, the 13th parent to be sentenced in a sweeping college-admissions cheating case, received the harshest penalty yet at his sentencing in Boston Wednesday.

The judge called him a “thief.”

“You need to understand the devastating nature of your crimes,” U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton told MacFarlane. “You had the audacity and the self-aggrandizing impudence to use your wealth to cheat and lie your way around the rules that apply to everyone else.”

MacFarlane, of Del Mar, California, had pleaded for leniency, pointing to the sentences other parents received. Most got two months or less in prison, although one received five months behind bars. But those sentences were handed down by a different judge.

“I know what I did was wrong,” a tearful MacFarlane said in court. “This was the worst set of decisions I’ve made and the worst set of actions I’ve taken in my entire life. I’m completely humiliated and ashamed and want to apologize.”

Loves USC

Prosecutors asked that MacFarlane receive a year and a day behind bars. The university wasn’t accused of wrongdoing.

“I loved that school and it is heartbreaking to me that I brought a shadow on it,” MacFarlane said in court.

MacFarlane, 56, pleaded guilty in June to a fraud conspiracy. He admitted paying college admissions counselor Rick Singer $200,000 in 2013 to fabricate a profile for his daughter, claiming she was a “U.S. Club Soccer All American” in high school. The woman graduated in 2018 but never played for the USC team, prosecutors said.

MacFarlane also paid $250,000 in 2016 to win admission for his son, who attended the school only briefly before withdrawing. The elder MacFarlane planned to claim the $200,000 was for “real estate consulting” and that a $50,000 payment went to “USC athletics,” prosecutors said.

“At minimum, he cost two kids their spots at USC,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Rosen said in court. “Two kids who didn’t get that chance because the defendant cut in line and took it from them.”

Guilty Plea

MacFarlane was also ordered to pay $150,000 on Wednesday.

Sixteen parents are fighting the charges filed by U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, and his office is also pursuing cases against others including college coaches and test administrators.

Separately on Wednesday, Igor Dvorskiy, the head of the West Hollywood College Preparatory School who oversaw college-admission testing, pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy, saying he took almost $200,000 to allow cheating on SAT and ACT exams, prosecutors said. He’s cooperating with the government and has agreed to testify against the parents who are taking their case to trial.

Dvorskiy, 53, allowed Singer’s associate Mark Riddell to correct test answers, or in some cases take the exams, for children of parents who paid as much as $75,000, prosecutors said. Dvorskiy was paid $10,000 per test by Singer, prosecutors said.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend Dvorskiy serve two years in prison.

The case is U.S. v. MacFarlane, 19-cr-10131, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).

To contact the reporters on this story: Janelle Lawrence in New York at jlawrence62@bloomberg.net;Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth

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