Florida Test Taker in College Admissions Scandal Agrees to Plead Guilty
Federal prosecutors agree to a sentence of under four years for a suspended Palmetto boarding school testing official.
April 08, 2019 at 05:46 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
One of two Florida defendants in the national college admissions bribery scandal agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Mark Riddell of Palmetto was charged March 11 for allegedly sitting as a test taker for students whose parents paid bribes since 2011. The mass indictment rounding up Hollywood stars and former Willkie Farr & Gallagher chairman Gordon Caplan was announced the next day.
Riddell was suspended from his position at Bradenton's IMG Academy, a boarding school for young athletes, after the charges were unsealed. He had served as director of college entrance exam preparation.
Riddell was accused of helping the scheme's architect, William “Rick” Singer, bribe “test administrators to allow Riddell to secretly take the exams in place of actual students, or to replace the students' exam responses with his own.”
Under a sealed plea deal signed Feb. 18 by federal prosecutors in Boston and defense attorney Ben Stechschulte of Stechschulte Nell in Tampa, Riddell agreed to plead guilty to two conspiracy counts — mail fraud and money laundering — for a prison sentence of under four years. The agreement on prison time serves only as a recommendation to the judge.
The agreement was followed by Monday's announcement that Caplan, TV actress Felicity Huffman and 12 other parents also agreed to plead guilty in the 50-defendant case.
Federal prosecutors followed up Tuesday with a new charge of money-laundering conspiracy against 16 other parents who had not committed to plea deals.
Caplan, the former Willkie Farr & Gallagher chairman, announced his intention to plead guilty last week. The smaller group of parents is expected to be charged by information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, the prosecutors said. One parent agreed to plead guilty to other charges.
In a copy of his plea deal posted online Monday, Caplan and the prosecutors agreed his guidelines offense level is 11, which translates to a recommended term of 8 to 14 months in prison for someone with no criminal history. The government agreed to recommend the lower end of that range.
Court dates for the guilty pleas have not been set, but plea agreements posted online impose an April 30 deadline.
Court records for the only other Florida defendant, Miami developer Robert Zangrillo, show no indications of a plea deal. He is represented by Matthew Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner in New York, Nicholas Theodorou of Foley Hoag in Boston and solo practitioner Martin Weinberg in Boston.
Zangrillo, who faces a mail fraud conspiracy count, tried to secure his daughter's acceptance to the University of Southern California as a transfer student.
A wiretapped conversation in court documents captured a confidential witness telling Zangrillo that a USC crew coach agreed to designate his daughter as a potential recruit for the team. A $250,000 bribe was paid in exchange.
Zangrillo is the founder and CEO of Dragon Global, a Miami-based investment company tied to the Magic City Innovation District redevelopment project in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.
Jack Newsham contributed to this report.
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