Marin County couple enter guilty plea in college scandal

Daughter was admitted to USC as a purported athlete

A Marin County couple charged with getting their daughter fraudulently admitted to the University of Southern California as a purported volleyball recruit have become the latest of the holdout parents in the nationwide college scandal who have agreed to plead guilty, prosecutors said Monday.

Todd Blake, 54, and his wife, Diane Blake, 55, of Ross, will plead guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton in Boston at an unspecified date, prosecutors said. Both will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud, and Todd Blake also will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Under the terms of the plea deals, Diane Blake, a merchandising executive, would serve six weeks in prison and Todd Blake, an investor, four months in prison. They each could have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Each would pay a $125,000 fine and spend two years on supervised release with 100 hours of community service.

The Blakes are the 27th and 28th of more than three dozen wealthy parents charged across the country to plead guilty in the college admissions case announced in March 2019.

Prosecutors said the accused parents paid a corrupt California college admissions consultant, William “Rick” Singer, to either pass their college-bound children off as athletic recruits for “side door” admission to elite schools, or have proxies cheat on their entrance exams — many of the parents admitted to doing both. Singer has yet to be sentenced.

The Blakes were charged with arranging through Singer to pass their daughter off as a volleyball recruit to the USC team, though she wasn’t a competitive athlete. Todd Blake went on Twitter in March 2018 to say he was

TheBlakeswere charged with arranging through Singer to pass their daughter off as a volleyball recruit to the USC team, though she wasn’t a competitive athlete.

proud of their girl for getting admitted to the school.

The scandal ensnared two celebrity Hollywood actresses. Felicity Huffman, who was among the first to plead guilty to test cheating for her daughter and was sentenced to two weeks

in prison. Lori Loughlin, who pleaded guilty in May along with her fashion designer husband to passing their daughters off as competitive rowers to get them into USC, will be sentenced

next month.

Ten other parents continue to fight the charges and are scheduled for trials starting in October and January. Among them are a Palo Alto couple, Dr. Gregory

and Amy Colburn, Bill McGlashan, of Mill Valley, who started an investment fund with the front-man for rock group U2, and Marci Palatella, of Hillsborough and Healdsburg,