Lawyer sentenced to a month in jail in admissions scandal

BOSTON — Highpowered Greenwich lawyer Gordon Caplan was sentenced to one month behind bars on Thursday for paying $75,000 to improve his daughter’s score on a college admissions test.

The 30day sentence handed down by Judge Indira Talwani in U.S. District Court in Boston also included a year of supervised release, a fine of $50,000 and 250 hours of community service.

After the sentencing, Caplan, 53, came out of the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse and haltingly delivered a contrite statement under gloomy skies. “I fully respect the decision of the court today,” Caplan said, speaking softly. “I am deeply and profoundly sorry for being involved in this mess.

“I am focused now on doing everything I can to recover some portion my good name,” he said.

The lawyer, who was photographed a few years ago looking proud after helping a 12yearold Iranian girl travel to the United States for critical eye surgery, sounded defeated. His lawyer, Joshua Levy of Bostonbased international law firm Ropes & Gray, did not allow for additional questions as they stood outside the courthouse.

Caplan must report to prison on Nov. 6, Boston courthouse spokeswoman Elizabeth McCarthy said. He asked to serve his sentence in a prison in Otisville, N.Y., but the Bureau of Prisons will make that determination.

Prosecutors had recommended eight months behind bars for Caplan, former cochairman of the Manhattan firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, as well as a $40,000 fine and a year of supervised release. The actual sentence increased the fine and added community service.

Caplan pleaded guilty to honest services mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud just weeks after his March arrest. He also made a broad apology to his family, friends and colleagues as well as to “students everywhere who have been accepted to college through their own hard work.” Accepting responsibility for his crime had a positive impact on his sentence, said Deirdre Daly, a former U.S. attorney who is now a partner at Finn Dixon & Herling in Stamford.

Caplan, one of 50 highincome parents ensnared in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, are normally good, upstanding people who have never had trouble with the law before, Daly said. The law describes their situation as “aberrant conduct,” a compelling argument for leniency in sentencing, she said.

In the courtroom before the sentence was handed down, Caplan told Talwani, “My situation boils down to this, I failed,” according to a tweet from Law360 courts reporter Chris Villani.

“I failed my daughter, I failed my wife, I failed my son, my parents, my colleagues, my friends and I failed the profession that I loved so much and worked in my whole life,” he said. Caplan’s law firm broke ties with him, and he faces disbarment because he was convicted of a felony.

Caplan