Crooked test taker gets four months in federal prison as Varsity Blues prosecutions conclude

It is now three years since I reported in this post about the first pleas in the high-profile college fraud Varsity Blues case detailed in this press release from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, headlined "14 Defendants in College Admissions Scandal to Plead Guilty."   Though I covered a number of the early and celebrity sentencings, there have been too many cases for me to keep track of them all.  Helpfully, DOJ has assembled here all the cases charged and sentenced in the Varsity Blues investigation.

But, as detailed in this AP article headlined "Test taker gets prison; coach convicted in admissions scam," the Varsity Blues prosecutions are winding down with a final jury conviction and a notable sentencing.  Here are the particulars:

A former Florida prep school administrator was sentenced to federal prison and a decorated water polo coach at the University of Southern California was swiftly convicted by a jury in a busy Friday in Boston federal court in the long running college admissions bribery scandal.

Mark Riddell, who was paid handsomely to take college entrance exams for wealthy students, was handed a four-month prison sentence, ordered to serve two years of supervised release and forfeit nearly $240,000.

Meanwhile, former USC coach Jovan Vavic, who faked the athletic credentials of rich students so they could gain admission, was convicted on all three counts of fraud and bribery he faced after a jury deliberated less than a day following his nearly monthlong trial.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins said the verdict in Vavic’s trial represents the final conviction in the headline grabbing case dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”

The investigation announced in 2019 exposed corruption in the college admissions process at Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and other sought-after schools, and implicated wealthy and connected parents, including actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli....

Vavic, a 60-year-old, who guided USC’s men’s and women’s water polo teams to 16 national championships, strode out of the courtroom Friday with his family, declining to comment on the verdict. Prosecutors said he received about $250,000 in bribes for designating unqualified students as water polo recruits so they could attend the elite Los Angeles school....

In a separate courtroom just minutes after Vavic’s verdict was read, Riddell was contrite as he faced sentencing on fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges.  The Harvard graduate, who emerged as a key figure in the wide-ranging scandal, apologized to the many students that lost out on college opportunities because of his “terrible decision.”  He said he brought shame to his family and pleaded for leniency for cooperating with law enforcement officials and for committing to make amends now and going forward for his actions.

Riddell’s lawyers said he should serve one to two months in prison because he was neither the ringleader of the scheme nor a university insider, like the coaches and college administrators implicated.  They also noted he’s already paid nearly $166,000 toward the forfeiture obligation.

Judge Nathaniel Gorton, however, sided with prosecutors who had argued for the four-month sentence.  He said Riddell played a key role for many years in the scheme by secretly taking the ACT and SAT for students, or correcting their answers.  “And for what?” the judge said.  “You did not need the money. How could you have stooped so low?”

A few of many prior posts on other defendants in college admissions scandal:

• Mapping out next possible celebrity sentencings in wake of indictment in college admissions scandal 
• Big batch of federal plea deals (with relatively low sentencing ranges) in college admissions scandal
• Federal district judge rejects feds request for significant prison term in first sentencing of college bribery scandal
• Feds recommending incarceration terms from 1 to 15 months for parents involved college bribery scandal 
• Noticing the interesting (but perhaps not too consequential) guidelines "loss" issue lurking in the college bribery cases
• Napa Valley winemaker gets five months of imprisonment, the longest sentence so far in college admissions scandal
• Catching up with another round of sentencings in "Operation Varsity Blues"
• Reviewing the sentencing dynamics as more parents get (minimal) prison time in "Operation Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal 
• Longest prison sentence (six months) imposed in college admission scandal on big-spending dad 
• Nine-month federal prison term (the longest yet) given to former CEO who paid nearly $1 million to benefit four kids in college admission scandal 
• Felicity Huffman sentenced to 14 days in college bribery scandal 
• Via video, Lori Loughlin and her husband get agreed fixed short prison sentences in college admission scandal 
• With two defendants now convicted after trial, how steep might the "trial penalty" be in the Varsity Blues cases? 
• Trial penalties lead to longest (but still not so long) sentences for two Varsity Blues defendants