Mom Who Wrote ‘Sticky Situations’ Guide Pleads in College Scam

(Bloomberg) -- A Beverly Hills marketing executive whose self-help books include "The Modern Girl’s Guide to Sticky Situations" was among three parents who admitted Friday to paying tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to fix scores on their kids’ college-entrance exams.

Jane Buckingham, who runs a boutique marketing firm, Robert Flaxman, the chief executive of a Los Angeles-based real-estate development company, and Marjorie Klapper, a Menlo Park mom who owns a jewelry business, all pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston.

Thirteen parents have now admitted guilt in the largest U.S. college-admissions scandal, with a 14th due to plead next month. Nineteen parents are fighting charges that include money laundering and conspiracy.

Under a plea deal, prosecutors will recommend that Buckingham, 50, and Flaxman, 62, serve as few as eight months in prison and pay a $40,000 fine and restitution. Klapper, 50, faces four months behind bars and a $20,000 fine under her deal, though she may seek no jail time.

Buckingham may now find solace in the advice in her 2010 book.

"Most hideous predicaments are not the end of the world," she wrote. She said her book wasn’t "meant to replace responsible behavior" but "to be a stack of get-out-of-jail-free cards for the deserving gal with the best intentions and a moment of bad luck."

Seeking to boost her child’s test scores, Buckingham paid a $50,000 bribe concealed as a donation to a purported charity run by William Rick Singer, a college admissions counselor who is the admitted mastermind of the scheme. Flaxman paid $75,000 in bribes and Klapper paid $15,000.

Along with Singer, who is cooperating with prosecutors, the U.S. has charged 16 college coaches and test proctors. Of those, Singer and six others have admitted guilt.

To contact the reporters on this story: Janelle Lawrence in Boston 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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