Wealthy CEO Douglas Hodge Gets The Longest Prison Sentence Yet In Connection To The College Admissions Scandal
Douglas Hodge is a wealthy, former CEO of a major investment management company. He is also one of the many parents who found themselves caught up in crimes related to the college admissions scandal. On Friday, Hodge was handed down what is thus far the longest prison sentence of anyone charged in connection to this case. He will spend nine months behind bars, according to The Mercury News.
Hodge worked with Rick Singer, the admitted mastermind of this cheating scheme, to get not one but five of his children into various prestigious universities by using bribery. In total, he spent $850,000 in bribery funds over the course of ten years. He also falsely presented some of his children as athletic recruits.
His bribery got two of his children a spot at Georgetown University, having presented them as tennis recruits. The next two got their way into the University of Southern California as soccer recruits. One other Hodge child got into Loyola Marymount University, again through bribery.
In one particularly unsettling email between Singer and Hodge, Singer told Hodge that they were only taking the same measures that are done for other students.
Douglas Hodge of Laguna Beach California – charged with fraud in the sweeping federal investigation of a college admissions scam – tried to duck cameras after his initial appearance. A judge set his bond at $500K. pic.twitter.com/dQkdN5ZDtN
— Jonathan Hall (@JHall7news) March 13, 2019
“Obviously we have stretched the truth but this is what is done for all kids. Admissions just needs something to work with to show he is an athlete,” Singer said of one of Hodge’s sons.
In addition to the above crimes, Hodge had also been lying to the IRS, claiming that these bribery funds were actually charity donations, thus raising the charges against him even further. While prosecutors were originally hoping to get Hodge two years in prison, his attorneys fought for him to receive a shorter sentence.
“Doug participated in Rick Singer’s process not out of ego or a desire for self-aggrandizement, but rather out of love for his children and an overriding, but misguided desire to be helpful to them,” his attorneys said in court.
Like over a dozen other parents, Hodge had originally intended to fight the charges against him but as the stakes continued to rise, he realized he wasn’t going to be successful and took a plea deal.
Among those who have not yet been sentenced in regard to this scandal is former Full House star Lori Loughlin and her designer husband Mossimo Giannulli. They have also been accused of working with Singer with the intention of getting their two daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, into the University of Southern California, as The Inquisitr previously reported. They have chosen to fight the charges.
