Final Parent Charged In College Admissions Scam Agrees To Plead Guilty
BOSTON (CBS) – The 38th – and final – parent in the College Admissions Scandal has agreed to plead guilty, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
I-Hsin "Joey" Chen, 67, of Newport Beach, California, the owner of a warehousing company for the shipping industry, has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and honest services wire fraud. He was accused of paying William "Rick" Singer $25,000 to bribe Igor Dvorskiy, a test administrator, to allow test proctor Mark Riddell to correct his son's ACT answers to get a higher score.
If the court approves the plea deal, Chen will be sentenced to nine weeks in prison, one year of supervised release with 100 hours of community service and a fine of $75,000.
Meanwhile, another parent was sentenced today.
Elizabeth Kimmel, 56, of Las Vegas, Nevada, a former chief executive of a California-based media company, was sentenced to six weeks in prison, two years of supervised release with the first year spent in home confinement, 500 hours of community service and a fine of $250,000 on Thursday. Kimmel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in August.
Kimmel agreed to pay $275,000 to have Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst for a tennis admission slot for her daughter, even though she was not a competitive player. She also paid $250,000 to have her son admitted to the University Of Southern California as a pole vault recruit even though he wasn't a pole vaulter.
Kimmel is the 29th parent to be sentenced in the case.
Singer, Dvorskiy, Ernset and Riddell have already pleaded guilty to their roles in the scandal.
