College Admission Scandal Hands Out Longest Prison Sentence Yet

The College Admissions Scandal sentences are getting longer.

Devin Sloane, the second parent to learn his fate after Felicity Huffman, was given four months behind bars on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to using Rick Singer's so-called "side door" to get his son into college.

He was also fined $95,000, and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service.

The Los Angeles business executive admitted paying $250,000 to set his son up as a fake water polo star in order to gain admission to USC.

The court heard how Sloane bought water polo equipment on Amazon, including a ball and a cap bearing the Italian flag, before getting the teen to pose in the family pool. After some Photoshop work, a fake profile was set up boasting he was a member of the Italian Junior National Team — even though he didn't play the sport at all.

Prosecutor Eric Rosen said Sloane used his dead mother as a prop for a fake donation, and "even expressed outrage when high school counselors dared to question why a student who did not play water polo was being recruited to play college water polo."

Some 35 parents were charged in the admission probe in total. Last week, Huffman became the first to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, earning herself 14 days in prison, 12 months of supervised release, 250 hours of community service and a $30,000 fine, after admitting to paying $15,000 to have one of her daughter's SAT scores corrected.

Fellow actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, who are accused of paying a much heftier $500,000 to set up their daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose with fake crew profiles to get into USC, await trial after pleading not guilty.

The good news for Loughlin — should she be found guilty — is that Judge Talwani ruled this week that she is not basing sentences on the amount of money defendants are accused of paying into the scheme.

The bad news is that the early trend certainly seems to be going that way; Sloane's bribe was 16 times higher than Huffman's, and his sentence was eight times longer.

The judge appears likely to come down harder on profile fakers rather than test cheaters; she will unquestionably come down harder on those who fought the charges and failed.

Of the 51 accused — including the scheme's orchestrators — 23 accepted plea deals, while 28 have pleaded not guilty.

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