Gordon Caplan
Last month, 40 people were charged in a $25 million college entrance exam cheating scandal, including actresses Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Lori Loughlin of Full House. Rich parents worried about their children’s ability to get into elite colleges and universities allegedly paid money to have their kids recruited as athletes (regardless of their athletic abilities) or assisted on admissions exams.
Also caught up in the scandal was Willkie Farr’s now-suspended co-chairman, Gordon Caplan, who paid $75,000 to college coaches turned government cooperating witnesses in a scheme to have someone else take an admissions exam for his daughter. Today, Caplan announced that he will be pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
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According to a statement from Caplan’s lawyers, he says he takes “full and sole responsibility” for his actions. The American Lawyer has the rest of the details:
“I apologize not only to my family, friends, colleagues and the legal Bar, but also to students everywhere who have been accepted to college through their own hard work,” the statement said. “I want to make clear that my daughter, whom I love more than anything in the world, is a high school junior and has not yet applied to college, much less been accepted by any school. She had no knowledge whatsoever about my actions, has been devastated to learn what I did and has been hurt the most by it.
“My immediate goal is to focus on making amends for my actions to try to win back the trust and respect of my daughter, my family, and my community,” the statement continued. “The remorse and shame that I feel is more than I can convey.”
Caplan faces up to 20 years in prison.
Ex-Willkie Co-Chair Gordon Caplan To Plead Guilty in College Cheating Case [American Lawyer]
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Earlier: Co-Chair Of Biglaw Firm Charged In College Admissions Scandal
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.