A California businessman was sentenced Wednesday to two months in prison for paying $250,000 in a scam to get his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake volleyball recruit, prosecutors announced.
Jeffrey Bizzack, 59, of San Diego County, became the 12th parent sentenced in the Varsity Blues admissions bribery scandal. Ten of the others also received prison time. Bizzack pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit fraud.
At a sentencing hearing in Boston, the U.S. attorney’s office said Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock also imposed three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine and ordered Bizzack to perform 300 hours of community service per year of the supervised-release period. Prosecutors had recommended nine months in prison.
Through an attorney, Bizzack contacted investigators after authorities announced charges in March against 50 people in a wide-ranging scheme to subvert college admission testing and admission decision-making at prominent universities. Prosecutors praised Bizzack in a sentencing memo for “coming forward rather than waiting to be charged.”
Bizzack admitted conspiring in 2017 with admission consultant William “Rick” Singer to get Bizzack’s son into USC through bribery and the use of fabricated athletics credentials.
At first, Singer sought to portray the son as a water polo player, prosecutors said in court records. Then, the plan shifted to volleyball. The son played neither sport competitively. A profile falsely depicting the son as a nationally ranked player, high school team captain and starting setter circulated within USC, alongside a photograph of someone else playing volleyball, court records show.
The ploy worked. In November 2017, Singer sent Bizzack a letter indicating that the son had been conditionally admitted. Bizzack then sent a $50,000 check to an account controlled by a USC athletics official, records show. After the son was formally admitted in March 2018, prosecutors say, Bizzack arranged for $200,000 to be sent to a sham charity that Singer controlled.
“Rick, A big thank you for your help with [my son]!” Bizzack wrote in a note to Singer, according to records. “He is thrilled about U.S.C. and is still on cloud nine!”
The son was not charged with any crime. Singer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering and to other crimes.
In a sentencing memorandum, attorneys for Bizzack wrote that he “accepted responsibility clearly, completely and at a very early stage. He is remorseful, ashamed and accepting of the punishment this Court will impose.”