A father who faked images depicting his son as a water polo star has been sentenced to four months in prison for using bribery to get his son into college.

Los Angeles businessman Devin Sloane, 53, pleaded guilty of fraud and conspiracy in May after being accused of paying a fixer $250,000 to get his son, Matteo, into the University of Southern California (USC), the elder Sloane’s alma mater.

The case broke in mid-March when the U.S. Department of Justice identified 33 parents accused of paying tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for services, such as having standardized tests taken for the student or faking test results to show exemplary scores.

Investigators say the elder Sloane bought water polo gear online and staged action photos of his son in the family swimming pool to make him a more attractive applicant to the university’s top-rated team. Matteo was not a water polo star or participant. It remains unclear if he is still a student at USC.

“There are no words to justify my behavior nor will I offer any excuses or justification,” he said Tuesday in a Boston courtroom, reportedly with tears in his eyes. “The crime I committed is unacceptable. In my heart and my soul, I want what’s best for my son. I realize now my actions were the antithesis of that.”

Sloane, who owns water systems company AquaTecture in Los Angeles, was accused of paying $200,000 to a sham charity operated by William “Rick” Singer, an admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, and $50,000 to an account controlled by Donna Heinel, a former USC athletics official. Sloane said he was drawn into the scheme by Singer, who provided a year of legitimate counseling before mentioning the scheme.

Sentencing

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also ordered Sloane to perform 500 hours of community service over two years of supervised release and pay a $95,000 fine.

Singer pleaded guilty in March and agreed to work with authorities. Heinel is accused of accepting bribes to get students admitted as fake athletic recruits. She has pleaded not guilty.

Other families, like Sloane, paid to have Singer and his associates market the students as star athletes even though they had not previously participated in a sport. Authorities have dubbed the scheme "Operation Varsity Blues."

The families of Chinese students reportedly paid $1.2 million and $6.5 million to Singer to arrange their children's admission to Stanford University and Yale University, respectively.

Wealthy and well-connected parents on the list of those indicted for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud included the owner of a California vineyard and the former owner of a California media company that was sold for $325 million a year ago. Some own corporations and firms, and deal in private equity and real estate development.

Last week, Felicity Huffman, star of the TV show Desperate Housewives, became the first parent sentenced in the scheme, after admitting to paying $15,000 to rig her daughter’s SAT score. Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison, 250 hours of community service and a $30,000 fine.

Parents' claims dismissed

Talwani dismissed the defense that parents were acting in the best interests of their children.

“The crime that’s at issue in all of these cases is not basic caretaking for your child. It’s not getting your child food or clothing. It’s not even getting your child a college education,” she said. “It’s getting your child into a college that might be called exclusive. Are they doing that for their children or are they doing it for their own status?”

Prosecutors said Sloane deserved prison time because he enlisted his son in the scheme, stole an admissions spot from another student, and failed to take full responsibility by blaming Singer.

“Prison is necessary here as a great leveler between rich and poor,” federal prosecutor Eric Rosen said Tuesday.

He added that Sloane’s deceit was worse than Huffman’s.

“Huffman kept her child out of the crime, preferring to not let her know what was going on,” he said. “The defendant, by contrast, literally threw his son into the family pool.”

Several others paid similar sums of money to get their children into other elite schools, authorities said, while some paid as much as $400,000 per student.

Fifteen parents have pleaded guilty, while 19 are fighting the charges, including Full House actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who are accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into USC as fake athletes.

Several other parents are scheduled to be sentenced in coming weeks, including Stephen Semprevivo, a Los Angeles-based executive who faces sentencing Thursday on charges that he paid $400,000 to get his son, Adam, into Georgetown University in Washington.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.

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