turtix/Shutterstock
- The Department of Justice on Tuesday charged 50 people with participating in a scheme to get students into colleges by cheating on entrance exams or bribing athletic coaches.
- The parents charged include Hollywood stars, as well as executives at prominent companies, venture-capital firms, and law offices.
The Department of Justice on Tuesday unsealed documents charging dozens of people with participating in a nationwide college-admissions scam.
Among those parents indicted by the FBI are high-flying executives, wealthy real-estate developers and famed Hollywood stars. A slew of financiers were also named in the case, from Douglas Hodge, the former Pimco CEO, to Manuel A. Henriquez, Hercules Capital’s CEO, and William McGlashan, a TPG managing partner.
High-ranking schools like Georgetown, Stanford, University of California, Los Angeles, Yale, University of Texas, University of Southern California and Wake Forest also appeared in the indictment, court document shows. Federal prosecutors said the systematic scheme of bribery lasted over eight years from 2011 to 2019.
There were a number of finance executives charged. Business Insider has reached out to all of them for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Robert Flaxman, cofounder, Crown Realty and Development
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for LAAA
Robert Flaxman cofounded Costa Mesa, California-headquartered real estate development company, Crown Realty and Development, in 1994. The firm has been an active local developer in California, investing in a number of notable local projects, such as the retail center Venice Crossroads and a hotel, restaurant, office complex across from Anaheim Stadium.
Crown Realty and Development has an over-2.3 million-square-foot portfolio that includes retail, hospitality, and industrial projects that spread across California, Arizona, Virginia, Idaho, and North California.
He allegedly participated in "both the college recruitment scheme and college entrance exam scheme." According to court records, he fabricated information on his son’s application to the University of San Diego.
He was charged with "conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud."
Manuel A. Henriquez, founder and chairman of Hercules Capital
Manuel Henriquez is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO at Hercules Technology Growth Capital, a Palo Alto, California-based venture-debt provider. The company was an early investor in Facebook.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he has worked in venture capital for over 30 years. Prior to Hercules, he was a partner at private equity fund, VantagePoint Venture Partners. He was also the founder of ON Technology, a software company backed by investors like Kleiner Perkins, Apple Computer, and more.
He and his wife, Elizabeth Henriquez, allegedly "participated in the college entrance exam cheating scheme, on four separate occasions, for their two daughters."
They also "conspired to bribe Gordon Ernst, the head tennis coach at Georgetown University, to designate their older daughter as a tennis recruit in order to facilitate her admission to Georgetown."
He was charged with "conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud," along with his wife, according to court documents.
Douglas Hodge, former CEO of Pimco
PIMCO
Douglas Hodge is the former CEO of asset manager Pimco. Hodge took the reins of the notable bond manager after Bill Gross, the onetime "Bond King," exited the firm in 2014. In December 2017, Hodge announced that he would retire from the firm.
During his 28 years with Pimco, Hodge grew the company’s assets under management from $15 billion to $1.69 trillion. Afterwards, he joined Sway Ventures as a venture partner to help grow the firm’s early-stage portfolio companies.
According to the court documents unsealed on March 12, Hodge "agreed to use bribery to facilitate the admission of two of his children to USC as purported athletic recruits, and sought to enlist CW-1 to secure the admission of a third child to college through bribery as well."
He was charged with "conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud."
Pimco declined to comment on the matter.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Bond trading platform Tradeweb just filed for an IPO
- Deutsche Bank is slashing its bonus pool and some bankers are getting zero payouts
- Here are the 10 richest people in banking, hedge funds and investing
Source: Business Insider – mshi@businessinsider.com (Madeline Shi)