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Federal prosecutors in Boston are seeking eight months in prison
for Gordon Caplan after he pleaded guilty to paying $75,000 to
have a corrupt test proctor secretly correct his daughter's
answers on the ACT college entrance exam.
He is among 52 people charged with participating in a vast
scheme in which wealthy parents conspired with a California
college admissions consultant to use bribery and other forms of
fraud to secure the admission of their children to top schools.
William "Rick" Singer, the consultant, pleaded guilty in March
to charges that he facilitated cheating on college entrance
exams and helped bribe sports coaches at universities to present
his clients' children as fake athletic recruits.
The 35 parents charged in the "Operation Varsity Blues"
investigation include corporate executives and celebrities,
including "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman and "Full
House" actress Lori Loughlin.
Prosecutors said Caplan in 2018 arranged through Singer to have
an associate pose as an ACT proctor for his daughter's exam to
correct her answers at a test center Singer controlled through
bribery.
The proctor was Mark Riddell, a former counsellor at a Florida
private school who pleaded guilty in April to secretly taking
SAT and ACT college entrance exams in place of Singer's clients'
children or correcting their answers.
In a November 2018 call recorded between Singer and Caplan, the
attorney asked Singer if "anybody ever gotten into an issue with
this."
"Keep in mind I'm a lawyer," he told Singer, according to court
papers. "I'm sort of rules oriented."
Caplan, in admitting wrongdoing, has stressed that his daughter,
now a high school senior, knew nothing of his actions.
Prosecutors have said some parents took steps to prevent their
children from realizing they were benefiting from fraud.
His lawyers in a court filing last week argued he deserves no
more than the 14 days in prison that actor Huffman received on
Sept. 13 after pleading guilty to engaging in a similar college
exam cheating scheme.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Grant McCool)
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