CEO, Wife Get Jail Time in College Admissions Scandal

Gregory and Marcia Abbott to each spend month in prison after paying $125K to fix daughter's tests
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2019 7:21 AM CDT
CEO, Wife Get Jail Time in College Admissions Scandal
In this May 22, 2019, file photo, Marcia Abbott, left, and Gregory Abbott leave federal court after they pleaded guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal.   (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

As Felicity Huffman prepares for her 14-day stay behind bars at the end of the month, more sentences are rolling in for the college admissions bribery scandal—and this time, it's both members of a couple who will see jail time. Gregory Abbott, the CEO of International Dispensing Corp., and his wife, Marcia, each got hit Tuesday with a month in the slammer after pleading guilty in May to fraud and conspiracy, per NBC News. The New York City couple were accused of paying $125,000 to scandal mastermind Rick Singer for arranging for someone to correct answers on their daughter's SAT and ACT exams. The US District Court judge in Boston allowed for their sentences to be staggered—Gregory Abbott's starts on Nov. 20, while Marcia Abbott doesn't have to report until Jan. 3—so that one of them will be home for their three kids.

"My husband and I were both motivated by good intentions ... but this does not excuse our actions," Marcia Abbott told the judge on Tuesday, per NBC10 Boston. "I stand before you today extremely contrite and remorseful." For his part, Gregory Abbott noted, "I knew my daughter was getting some help that was outside the rules. ... In this perfect storm, I buckled." The Abbotts' defense had sought probation alone, while prosecutors had wanted eight months in prison for each of them. The Abbotts will also have a year of supervised release, pay a $45,000 fine, and each put in 250 hours of community service. (The prosecutor in Lori Loughlin's case warns she may get a longer sentence than Huffman if convicted.)

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