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California Developer Sentenced in College Admissions Case
BOSTON – Robert Flaxman, a 62-year-old California real estate developer, became the tenth parent to be sentenced in connection with the college admissions case.
Flaxman was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to one month in prison, one year of supervised release, ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and to pay a fine of $50,000.
In May 2019, Flaxman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
The government recommended a sentence of eight months in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $40,000.
According to court documents, Flaxman conspired with William “Rick” Singer and others to have his daughter’s ACT exam corrected, thereby fraudulently inflating the score. This began in 2016 when Flaxman took steps to secure extended time for his daughter to take the ACT and to take the exam at a test center in Houston, Texas, that Singer “controlled” through a corrupt test administrator.
On Oct. 22, 2016, Flaxman’s daughter and the child of another client of Singer both took the ACT with the assistance of co-conspirator Mark Riddell. Riddell assisted in answering exam questions and instructed the students to answer different questions incorrectly so that the ACT would not suspect cheating. As a result of the cheating scheme, Flaxman’s daughter received a score of 28 out of 36 on the exam.
Two days prior to the exam, Flaxman made a purported charitable donation of $75,000 to Singer’s sham charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, to pay for the fraud. Thereafter, Flaxman deducted the bribe payment from his income taxes, thereby defrauding the IRS.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric S. Rosen, Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie A. Wright and Kristen A. Kearney of U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston.
Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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