Judge Indira Talwani sentences college bribery suspects to jail
Boston. So far U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has sentenced two of those involved in the college admissions bribery scandal to jail. On September 24, Talwani sentenced Devin Sloane, a businessman, to four months in jail.
Sloane, 53, was sentenced by Talwani to four months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to complete 500 hours of community service and pay a fine of $95,000. Sloane is the chief executive officer of AquaTecture, LLC, a privately held Los Angeles-based company involved in the water and wastewater industries. In May 2019, Sloane pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Prosecutors stated that Sloane had paid $250,000 to a middleman Rick Singer to get his son into the University of Southern California as a water polo star, even though the son never played the sport. According to the prosecutors, Sloane conspired with William “Rick” Singer and others to have his son admitted to the University of Southern California (USC) as a water polo recruit, even though his son did not play water polo. As part of the scheme, Sloane purchased water polo gear online, and photographed his son purporting to play water polo in the family swimming pool, later hiring a graphic design firm to manipulate the photos to make them appear more realistic. Sloane also made a purported contribution of $250,000 to Singer’s sham charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, with the intention that the money be used to bribe USC officials to facilitate the fraud.
Judge Talwani rejected arguments from Sloane’s lawyer that he was a good man lured into crime by a grifter, Rick Singer, the college bribery scheme’s admitted mastermind.
Earlier Talwani sentenced actress Felicity Hufmann to a two week jail sentence. Prosecutors said Huffman paid $15,000 to rig her daughter’s college entrance-exam scores. Another 13 parents who pleaded guilty await sentencing. Nineteen other parents are fighting the cases lodged against them in the bribery scandal involving Rick Singer.
Talwani got he BA from Harvard and her law degree from University of California Berkeley in 1988. In 2014, after decades of private practice, she was appointed to the U.S. District Judge by President Barack Obama.
Here is the news release issued by the Justice Department on the Sloane verdict:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/second-parent-sentenced-prison-college-admissions-case
Photo of Judge Talwani from CIS
