Douglas Hodge who served 28 years in the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), and retired in 2017 is now in deep trouble. He was sentenced last Friday for nine months in prison in the College admission case trying to get five of his children into exclusive colleges as fake athletic recruits.
As per the prosecutors, Hodge agreed to use Rick Singer’s college admissions side-door scam for 5 of his children, paying bribes amounting to $850,000 over the course of a decade.
As per the judgment, the Ex-CEO of PIMCO will serve 9 months in the prison and this is the longest duration served by any parent in the scam. Apart from prison, a fine of $750,000 and community service of a total duration of 500 hours is also imposed on him.
Douglas escapes 2-year Imprisonment
Hodge pleaded guilty to two counts, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud. It was the heaviest punishment of any parent who has been sentenced in the admissions scandal, although the prosecutors recommended 2 years to the Judge.
The judgment read,
“There is no term in the English language that describes your conduct as well as the Yiddish term of chutzpah,” Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton told Mr. Hodge before imposing his sentence. “You need to pay a significant and conspicuous price for unconscionable, egregious criminal conduct in order to deter you and others who can afford it from the blatant misuse of your good fortunes.”
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The admission on athlete quota is for those students who are specialized in particular sports, but the children of Mr. Hodge were falsely admitted to the elite college because of bribes. Two of his children got admission to Georgetown University on the ground of tennis athlete, another two were admitted to the University of Southern California in soccer quota, one in the football sports and there was an attempt to enroll another child as well with bribes.
Even after getting caught, the former CEO tried to cover up the scam but the recorded phone call between Singer and Douglas opened up the matter.
Who was the Mastermind?
In this case, Rick Singer was the mastermind of the scam, he provided two fake athlete profiles to Douglas and the former CEO of PIMCO portrayed the false profile of his children, one as a football player and another as a tennis player. His son got admission to the college but he never joined any football team and to cover up this, Douglas paid $75,000 to the Women’s Athletic Board and he named it as a charity.