Second Parent To Plead Guilty In College Admissions Scam

BOSTON (CBS/AP) – A Connecticut lawyer is the second of the 33 parents charged in the college admissions bribery scandal to agree to plead guilty.

Gordon Caplan, of Greenwich, is accused of paying $75,000 to get a test supervisor to correct the answers on his daughter's ACT exam after she took it.

In a statement Friday, he said he intends to plead guilty and dedicate himself "to trying to right this wrong."

"I take full and sole responsibility for my conduct and I am deeply ashamed of my behavior and my actions. I apologize not only to my family, friends, colleagues and the legal Bar, but also to students everywhere who have been accepted to college through their own hard work. I want to make clear that my daughter, whom I love more than anything in the world, is a high school junior and has not yet applied to college, much less been accepted by any school. She had no knowledge whatsoever about my actions, has been devastated to learn what I did and has been hurt the most by it," Caplan said.

"My immediate goal is to focus on making amends for my actions to try to win back the trust and respect of my daughter, my family, and my community. The remorse and shame that I feel is more than I can convey."

Caplan was the co-chairman of the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, based in New York. Caplan "is no longer a partner," the firm said in a statement Friday.

Earlier this week, Peter Jan Sartorio, 53, a packaged-food entrepreneur from California became the first parent to agree to plead guilty in the scheme. He was accused of paying $15,000 in cash to have someone correct his daughter's answers on the ACT college entrance exam.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)