John Wilson, who is the Former Staples Europe President, was just sentenced to serve 15 months in prison for his involvement in the college admissions bribery scandal. This is the longest sentence so far any parent involved has received.
Wilson hired Rick Singer, the infamous admission consultant at the center of the scheme, to help get his children into school. He was accused of paying over $200k to get his son into USC as a water polo recruit and an additional $1mil for his 2 twin daughters to get into Stanford and Harvard.
Wilson will also serve two years of supervised released, 400 hours of community service, and pay a fine to the IRS for his involvement in the college admissions bribery scandal.
Based on an FBI wiretap, it was evident Wilson was in on the scheme, whereas other parents claimed they did not know where their payments were going.
Still, Wilson’s team tried arguing in court that his bribes were different than the other parents’ because his children were actually “well qualified” for the schools they were trying to get into as his daughters, according to his lawyers, “had perfect and near-perfect ACT scores.” Wilson’s lawyers also argued donations to colleges used to improve an applicants chance at admission is not a crime, and a well-established process still being used today.