Plea Deal for Ex-Willkie Co-Chair Gordon Caplan Calls for Prison Time
The government agreed to recommend a term at the lower end of an 8- to 14-month range, plus a year of supervised release and a $40,000 fine.
April 08, 2019 at 05:46 PM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
Former law firm leader Gordon Caplan, television actress Felicity Huffman and 12 other people are set to plead guilty in the college admissions bribery scandal, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said Monday.
Caplan, the former Willkie Farr & Gallagher chairman, announced his intention to plead guilty last week. Caplan and Huffman are among 12 parents expected to be charged by information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, the prosecutors said. One parent will plead guilty to other charges.
In a copy of his plea deal posted online Monday, Caplan and the prosecutors agree that 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 a term at the lower end of that range, but the court will also do its own calculation and consider other factors in the ultimate sentencing calculation. Prosecutors also agreed to recommend a year of supervised release and a $40,000 fine. Caplan also waved his right to appeal the court's decision.
“After the court issues a written judgment, defendant will lose the right to appeal or otherwise challenge his conviction and sentence, regardless of whether he later changes his mind or finds new information that would have led him not to agree to give up these rights in the first place,” the agreement said.
The maximum sentence for the conspiracy count that most of the defendants will be pleading guilty to is 20 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines generally call on judges to impose much milder terms than the statute allows, however.
The announcement marks the beginning of the end of a large swathe of the college admissions scandal prosecution, also called Operation Varsity Blues. Fifty people were charged last month by prosecutors in Boston with cooperating in a fraud ring that centered on William Singer, a college admissions consultant who helped parents bribe coaches and test administrators so their children had a better chance of getting into prominent schools.
Parents who used the used their payments to Singer's charity to reduce their tax bills also agreed to come clean with the IRS, prosecutors said.
The sentencing guideline range calculated for Caplan is in the lower-middle end of the ranges for other parents whose plea agreements were posted online by prosecutors. The offense levels ranged from 7 to 21 and appeared to be driven largely by the payments the defendants allegedly made to Singer, which ran from $15,000 to $600,000 for the 13 parents who pled guilty.
Court dates for the guilty pleas have not been set, but the plea agreements posted online impose an April 30 deadline.
Also among the 14 people whose guilty pleas were announced Monday are Bruce Isackson, who is also pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the IRS, the government said. He and his wife Davina agreed to cooperate.
Michael Center, the University of Texas at Austin's former men's tennis head coach, will also plead guilty to a fraud conspiracy count, prosecutors said.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAn ‘Indiana Jones Moment’: Mayer Brown’s John Nadolenco and Kelly Kramer on the 10-Year Legal Saga of the Bahia Emerald
Travis Lenkner Returns to Burford Capital With an Eye on Future Growth Opportunities
Legal Speak's 'Sidebar With Saul' Part V: Strange Days of Trump Trial Culminate in Historic Verdict
1 minute readTrending Stories
- 1The Tech Built by Law Firms in 2024
- 2Distressed M&A: Mass Torts, Bankruptcy and Furthering the Search for Consensus: Another Purdue Decision
- 3For Safer Traffic Stops, Replace Paper Documents With ‘Contactless’ Tech
- 4As Second Trump Administration Approaches, Businesses Brace for Sweeping Changes to Immigration Policy
- 5General Warrants and ESI
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250