3 more parents plead guilty in college scandal

LOS ANGELES — Three parents admitted Wednesday to paying tens of thousands of dollars to fix their children’s college entrance exams and pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy in federal court in Boston.

Peter Jan Sartorio of Menlo Park and Gregory and Marcia Abbott, a married couple who split time between New York City and Aspen, Colo., admitted to conspiring with Newport Beach college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to inflate their children’s ACT and SAT scores.

As of Wednesday, 10 parents and 16 people in total have pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering crimes committed as part of Singer’s scheme, including Singer himself.

With Singer’s help, Sartorio’s daughter secured a 27 out of 36 on the ACT, good for the 86th percentile nationally. She had scored in the 51st percentile on a preliminary SAT. The Abbotts’ daughter notched a 35 out of 36 on the ACT, a score in the 99th percentile.

In both cases, Singer paid an accomplice — Mark Riddell, a 36-year-old Harvard graduate and director of exam preparation at IMG Academy in Florida — to correct the students’ answers once they had finished. Singer bribed administrators at two schools, in West Hollywood and Houston, to turn a blind eye to the fraud, prosecutors say.

Sartorio paid Singer $15,000 in cash. The Abbotts wired $50,000 from a family foundation to Singer’s charity, which had no real charitable purpose and was used to launder bribes.

Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and obstruction of justice. Riddell has pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. Both are awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts recommend Sartorio, 53, be sentenced at the low end of guidelines that call for six months in prison to no time at all, according to his plea agreement and federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors say he should be fined $9,500.

Prosecutors recommend Gregory Abbott spend a year in prison and pay a $55,000 fine. They recommend the same sentence and fine for Marcia Abbott.

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES New York food and beverage distributor Gregory Abbott, left, makes his way to the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse on March 29 to plea in front of a judge for charges in the college admissions scandal.