A Palo Alto couple implicated in this month’s nationwide college admissions cheating case will ‘fight like crazy’ against the charges, their lawyer said Tuesday as they faced a new indictment on the allegations in federal court.
Gregory Colburn, 61, a radiation oncologist, and his wife, Amy, 59, were among the 33 parents across the country charged in a March 12 federal complaint alleging conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in a scheme involving falsified college applications.
On Tuesday, the Colburns were indicted on those and additional charges including money laundering. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston would not comment on the indictment.
But the Colburns’ lawyer, Patric Hooper, suggested it was because his clients had demanded a preliminary hearing on the initial complaint that would have required prosecutors to present evidence against them in court in 21 days. Charges brought through an indictment by a federal grand jury have no such requirement, he said.
“We’re going to fight like crazy,” Hooper said in an interview Tuesday. “We think he’s innocent — he and his wife — and request a speedy trial.”
Also re-charged in Tuesday’s superseding indictment against the Colburns was David Sidoo, who was president of mineral producer Advantage Lithium in Vancouver, Canada. Sidoo took a temporary leave from the company after he was arrested in San Jose and charged in the college admissions case. He pleaded not guilty March 15 and is free on $1.5 million bond.
The stunning charges in the nation’s largest college cheating scandal announced two weeks ago centered around William “Rick” Singer, 58, a Newport Beach, Calif., college counselor who has since pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors said that over the last eight years, Singer conspired with dozens of wealthy parents, athletic coaches, a college athletics administrator and test administrators to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of students to top schools. Targeted universities included Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and the University of Southern California.
The alleged scheme involved paying proxies to inflate students’ SAT or ACT test scores or bribing coaches to designate unqualified applicants as recruits for crew, water polo, soccer or sailing. Parents are accused of concealing payments for Singer’s services and bribes as contributions to a sham charity he called the Key Worldwide Foundation.
Among the charged parents were two Hollywood actresses, Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
Bay Area parents swept up in the case include Todd and Diane Blake of San Francisco, Manuel and Elizabeth Henriquez of Atherton, Agustin Huneeus Jr. of San Francisco, William McGlashan, Jr. of Mill Valley, Bruce and Davina Isackson of Hillsborough, Marjorie Klapper of Menlo Park, Peter Jan Sartorio of Menlo Park and Marci Palatella of Healdsburg.
Most of the accused parents will make initial appearances in federal court in Boston, where the cases were filed, either Friday or the following Wednesday. They are not expected to enter pleas but will be formally presented with the charges and penalties they face.
The Henriquezes requested their hearing to be rescheduled for May 14, in part because Elizabeth Henriquez’ lawyer is unavailable due to another court case.
The revised indictment accuses Sidoo of paying Singer $100,000 on two separate occasions to have a proxy take the SAT for his two sons. With those inflated scores, the indictment charges, the older son was admitted to Chapman University in Southern California in 2012 and the younger son was admitted to UC-Berkeley in 2014.
The indictment accuses the Colburns of paying Singer $25,000 to have a proxy take their son’s SAT in West Hollywood and boost his score, which he used in applications last fall to four colleges including the University of Oregon and the University of Arizona. They were scheduled to appear in court Friday and were free on $500,000 bond each.
The indictment alleges that in December 2017 Gregory Colburn transferred $24,443.50 worth of stock and gave Singer a check for $547.45 identified as a “charitable donation” to the Key foundation. It alleges that Singer then spoke with the couple in a recorded conversation Oct. 24, 2018 telling the Colburns that the IRS was auditing the foundation and wanted to make sure their stories aligned — the payments were a charitable contribution not for a proxy to take the SAT for their son.
“Right,” Gregory Colburn allegedly replies, “it was to help underserved kids. Got it.”