Agustin Huneeus is seen after a court appearance in Boston on March 29. (Matt Stone/AP)
A wealthy Napa Valley vintner became the fifth parent ordered to prison in the college admissions bribery scandal Friday and walked away with the stiffest sentence yet.
Agustín Huneeus, founder of the popular Quintessa winery in California, was sentenced to five months behind bars for agreeing to pay $50,000 to fix his daughter’s SAT score and another $250,000 to get her fraudulently classified as a water polo recruit at the University of Southern California.
The daughter did not play competitive water polo but still received a conditional acceptance to USC last November, prosecutors said.
At one point, Huneeus complained that his money only bought his daughter a score of 1380 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT exam she took in March 2018, according to filings in the case.
“If you had wanted to, I mean [my daughter’s] score could have been 1550 right?,” Huneeus griped to admitted scam mastermind William “Rick” Singer in a wiretapped call last year, the paperwork said.
In addition to his prison time, Huneeus, 53, also must serve two years of supervised release, complete 500 hours of community service and pay a fine of $100,000, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled.
Officials have charged some 35 parents in the scandal described as the largest college admissions bribery scheme ever prosecuted.
They say the parents conspired with Singer to get their kids into elite universities such as Yale, Stanford, UCLA and Georgetown through fraud involving rigged tests and so-called “side door” schemes.
Timeline of the college admissions scandal
The four parents sentenced before Huneeus all received shorter stints behind bars.
Disbarred Manhattan lawyer Gordon Caplan was sentenced to a month in prison earlier this week for paying $75,000 to have a ringer fix answers on his daughter’s ACT exam.
Stephen Semprevivo previously got a four-month prison sentence for paying $400,000 to sneak his son through a “side door” at Georgetown as a fraudulent tennis recruit.
Devin Sloane was sentenced to four months as well, while actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to two weeks behind bars for paying $15,000 to rig her daughter’s SAT exam.
Among the parents still fighting charges are “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli.
They’re accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into USC as fake rowing recruits.
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