A Canadian father who once played in the Canadian Football League was sentenced to three months in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a college admission cheating scheme, federal prosecutors said.
David Sidoo, who played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions, paid around $ 200,000 for someone else to take the SAT tests for two of his children in 2011 and 2012, prosecutors said.
“I have no excuses. I broke the law. I was convicted of a crime and now I must pay for my actions,” Sidoo told a judge, according to The Associated Press.
Sidoo, 61, of Vancouver, pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. In addition to jail time, he was ordered to pay a $ 250,000 fine.
He was among more than 50 people charged in the scheme orchestrated by William “Rick” Singer in which parents paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to help their children get into college.
In addition to working with Singer to have another man, Mark Riddell, take the SAT tests, Sidoo and Singer devised a plan to craft a college admission essay for one of their children who falsely claimed that a Los Angeles gang member But he was rescued by a member of a rival gang, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement.
Also Wednesday, another mother accused as part of the general cheating plan, Karen Littlefair, 57, of Newport Beach, California, was sentenced to five weeks in prison, the United States attorney’s office said.
She was not charged when federal authorities announced the removal of Singer’s plan in March 2019, but she was charged in December and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud the following month, prosecutors said.
Littlefair paid Singer’s company $ 9,000 to have someone else take classes online instead of her son, the United States attorney’s office said. The son graduated from Georgetown University based on the credits from those courses.
“I acted out of love for my son, but I ended up hurting him a lot,” Littlefair said Wednesday, according to the AP. She was also sentenced to pay a $ 209,000 fine.
In March 2019, prosecutors charged 50 people in connection with the alleged scam to help wealthy parents admit their children to prominent universities by cheating on standardized tests and bribing coaches to fraudulently designate children. like athletic recruits.
The charges came after an FBI investigation called “Operation Varsity Blues.” Singer pleaded guilty and used a cable for the FBI during the investigation.
The defendants included actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was also charged.
Huffman, who starred in “Desperate Housewives” and was nominated for an Oscar for his role in “Transamerica” pleaded guilty in May 2019 and served 11 days of a 14-day sentence.
Loughlin, 55, known for “Full House,” and Giannulli pleaded guilty in May, but have not yet been convicted.
A settlement with prosecutors requires Loughlin to spend two months in prison and pay a $ 150,000 fine, and requires Giannulli to serve five months in prison and pay a $ 250,000 fine.