Parent Who Paid $250K to Get Son Into USC as Fake Polo Recruit Sentenced to Four Months in Prison

A U.S. district judge sentenced Los Angeles businessman Devin Sloane to four months in prison and fined him $95,000 for paying $250,000 to get his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake water polo recruit. According to court documents, Sloane hired consultant William “Rick” Singer, and they claimed his son was a member of the Italian national water polo team, even staging a photo shoot in the family pool that was photoshopped. In May, Sloane pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, one of 15 parents who have acknowledged conspiring with Singer, the confessed mastermind of a long-running admissions fraud, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Prosecutors argued for a longer sentence, saying Sloane showed “breathtaking disregard for basic principles of good parenting and common decency.” Sloane’s lawyers begged for mercy and pointed to his impoverished childhood, saying he used to have to share a McDonald’s hamburger with his brother. Sloane acknowledged that he has “become a symbol for wealthy entitlement, arrogance, privilege and unfairness,” according to the Times.