College Scandal Is Heating Up With New Charges and Plea Deals
New Parent to Plead Guilty in College Scandal as Case Expands
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. college admissions scandal is heating up more than a year after the initial case was announced, with a flurry of new charges and plea deals.
“Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, gave up a 14-month fight and pleaded guilty on Friday, even as prosecutors said a 25th parent, 60-year-old California tech executive Peter Dameris, would admit guilt in the sprawling case announced in March of last year.
Now, in the latest sign that prosecutors are still aggressively pursuing parents swept up in the scandal, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts announced on Tuesday that Robert Repella, the former president and chief executive officer of Harmony Bioscience LLC, was charged with paying a bribe of more than $50,000 to a former Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter admitted as a recruit.
Shortly afterward, in a videoconference hearing, the 61-year-old resident of Ambler, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge. Under the terms of his plea deal, the U.S. will recommend a sentence of 10 months in prison, a fine of $40,000 and restitution.
“I sincerely regret and take full responsibility for my actions, which were mine and mine alone,” Repella said in a statement through his lawyer Robert Fisher. He said a university review “determined that the academic and athletic qualifications my daughter submitted in her application were factual and truthful and she remains a student in good standing at Georgetown.”
Georgetown spokesperson Ruth McBain declined to discuss any student specifically but said in a statement that after the initial charges last year, the school “began conducting a process of thoroughly reviewing the newly available information related to the alleged scheme, contacting current students who may have been involved, and giving each individual student an opportunity to respond.”
None of the students or schools in the case, from the University of Southern California to Georgetown to Yale, were charged.
Court filings show that Repella, the 26th parent to admit guilt, agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation, offering his help back in August and working with prosecutors since October.
How he cheated is another noteworthy feature of Tuesday’s announcement by U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, who has spearheaded the massive case. Repella didn’t conspire with the scam’s admitted mastermind, William “Rick” Singer, but worked directly with the former tennis coach, Gordon Ernst, according to Lelling. Dameris, the tech executive, did use Singer to facilitate a $300,000 bribe to get his son into Georgetown as a tennis recruit.
Ernst has pleaded not guilty. His attorney Tracy Miner declined to comment.
“This case is not Singer-related, and from my client’s perspective, what he wants the world to understand is that his daughter had nothing to do with this,” Fisher said in an interview after the plea hearing. “She submitted her academic records and was number one-ranked in her region as a tennis player.”
More than 50 people have been charged in the scandal. Of the 38 parents, including Repella and Dameris, 26 have admitted guilt. Their sentences have ranged from two weeks for actor Felicity Huffman to nine months for former Pimco CEO Douglas Hodge.
The new rash of plea agreements still leaves a dozen parents facing trial. The first trial, which was to include Loughlin and Giannulli, was scheduled to start Oct. 5, subject to the court’s reopening. The second, beginning Jan. 11, includes private equity executive Bill McGlashan.
The case is U.S. v. Sidoo, 19-cr-10080, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.