College admissions scammer gets 3 months
College admissions scandal dad David Sidoo will get his wish of three months in prison, after his plea for leniency was backed by Warren Moon, the Queen and the memory of Bill Buckner.
Sidoo, 61, of Vancouver, Canada, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton in federal court downtown Wednesday to three months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 for his role in the splashy scam that snared dozens of the rich and famous who used their money to cheat their kids into better colleges.
Sidoo’s lawyers in a colorful memorandum last week had asked for 90 days in jail, rather than the six to 12 months the federal sentencing guidelines recommended.
Sidoo, a successful businessman and philanthropist who played pro football in Canada, pulled out all the stops in his sentencing memorandum, including a letter from his friend Warren Moon — the Hall of Fame quarterback — plus an award from the Queen of England and a letter from another friend comparing Sidoo’s situation to that of Bill Buckner, the late Red Sox first baseman who infamously flubbed an easy ground out to lose Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Sidoo’s filing also argued that he’s the only Canadian national to be ensnared in the scam, so the local media north of the border has really had a field day with him.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling’s office effectively agreed with Sidoo in its own filing last week, asking for 90 days because that’s similar to what several other people involved in the college admissions scam have received, and “it is likely that Sidoo will be required to serve any sentence in a minimum security prison, rather than a federal prison camp, as defendants in related matters have.”
Sidoo, who pleaded guilty three months ago, is charged with paying scam mastermind Rick Singer $200,000 to help two of his sons get into colleges. Singer had one of his cohorts take the SAT for two of Sidoo’s kids, helping Sidoo “steal two college admissions slots for his sons,” Lelling’s filing said.
Sidoo and Singer also worked together, Lelling said, to write an admissions essay for one of the boys “that falsely claimed that Sidoo’s son had been held up at gunpoint by members of a Los Angeles street gang and that he had then been rescued by a rival gang member named ‘Nugget.’”
Sidoo was one of 53 of the rich and famous charged last year in “Operation Varsity Blues,” including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.