A Los Angeles businessman has been sentenced to four months in prison after he paid $250,000 to secure his son a place at college as a fake water polo recruit.
Devin Sloane, 53, was also fined $95,000 and given 500 hours of community service for his part in a college admissions scandal that also includes Hollywood actress Felicity Huffman. Huffman, 56—most widely known for her role in Desperate Housewives—pleaded guilty and was sentenced to just 14 days in prison after paying someone $15,000 to take her daughter’s SAT test for her.
Joey Garrison of USA Today provided quotes from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said of Sloane—the CEO and founder of water treatment company waterTALENT—at his sentencing:
“Just because you’re a good person doesn’t mean you don’t commit a crime when you do those things. I come back to the action you took in bribing a college official. Bribing a college official is a serious crime. You are not a repeat player, but what you did involved your child.”
According to reports, Sloane paid $200,000 to Rick Singer—the scandal’s mastermind—and $50,000 to USC Women’s Athletics through Donna Heinel—an ex-senior associate athletic director at the college—who has pled not guilty.
