A former San Diego television executive was sentenced to six weeks in prison and a year of home detention Thursday for her role in the sprawling college-admissions bribery scandal that quietly secured top-notch educations for children of the rich and sometimes famous at elite universities across the country.
Elisabeth Kimmel, 57, became the latest in a long roster of well-heeled parents to be handed custodial sentences in the so-called Operation Varsity Blues investigation.
A federal judge in Boston, where the prosecution was based, on Thursday agreed to the recommended term that had been negotiated between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Kimmel’s defense team as part of her plea. The time in prison takes into consideration Kimmel’s serious health problems, including the cardiac injury she suffered when FBI agents served the early-morning arrest warrant at her La Jolla home in 2019. She arrived at the courthouse in a wheelchair.
Kimmel, who once owned KFMB stations as part of her family-owned Midwest Television Inc., and now lives in Las Vegas, will also have to pay a $250,000 fine and complete 500 hours of community service.
“Despite a privileged upbringing, a net worth totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, and degrees from two of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world — including a law degree — the defendant chose repeatedly to break the law, and to buy her children opportunities they did not deserve,” prosecutors wrote in a memorandum in preparation for the sentencing hearing. “She knew better; but she chose, again and again, to cheat and lie.”
Kimmel had been among a group of parents preparing to take the case to trial before she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in August.
Prosecutors say Kimmel paid $525,000 to guarantee spots at Georgetown University and the University of Southern California for two of her children as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach college placement counselor who had a wide range of collegiate coaches and administrators in his pocket.
It started when she hired Singer for his legitimate services in 2011 to help get her daughter accepted into Georgetown as a field-hockey recruit, according to prosecutors. But when that didn’t happen, Singer suggested another way in.
He called it the “side door,” taking advantage of the collegiate recruiting system of allocating spots for student athletes. And he had contacts at schools across the country to make it happen, despite whether the recruit actually played the sport or not.
Kimmel arranged with Singer for her husband — a former state prosecutor in San Diego — and daughter to meet with Georgetown’s tennis coach, despite the daughter not being a competitive player.
Her subsequent application claimed she was a “ranked player” in Southern California and a four-year tennis academic All American, prosecutors said. A payment of $275,000 — styled as a donation funneled through her family’s charitable foundation meant for scholarships for law enforcement and military families — secured her spot. The money went to Singer’s foundation, which was then used to pay off college officials, prosecutors said.
In 2017, Kimmel asked for help getting her son into USC, her son’s dream school and her husband’s alma matter, according to court documents. The son was recruited as a track and field athlete, his application lauding him as “one of the top pole vaulters in the state of California” despite no record of him ever competing in high school.
Again, $250,000 flowed to Singer’s foundation, including a $50,000 check allegedly signed by Kimmel’s husband, who was not charged.
Defense attorneys called Kimmel’s involvement with Singer “a dark moment in a life of goodness, honesty and integrity.” In letters to U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, dozens of friends and family members described Kimmel as a hard-working career woman who gracefully juggled charity work, mentoring and raising three children.
“She is mortified at her own involvement in this scandal and the harm it has caused,” defense attorney Eóin Beirne wrote in a sentencing memo. “The circumstances that bring her before the Court are an aberration in her life, which has been characterized by hard work, integrity, honor, and caring about and for others.”
Defense attorneys also sought to downplay Kimmel’s involvement, saying Singer “warped” her thinking.
“She did not seek out Singer with the intent to commit any crimes and yet she allowed herself to be taken in by Singer and become a participant in his scheme,” the memo said. “Although Elisabeth did not know all of the details, she went along with Singer’s fraudulent plan.”
Prosecutors disputed claims that Kimmel was a passive participant, pointing out instances in which Kimmel tried to keep the conspiracy a secret, including from her own son.
Kimmel is the 29th parent — and third from San Diego County — to be sentenced in the case. Others involved in the scheme — including Singer, former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst, and former USC athletic administrator Donna Heinel — have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Also Thursday, shipping warehouse company owner I-Hsin “Joey” Chen, 67, of Newport Beach, has agreed to plead guilty. He will be the 38th and final parent charged in the case to either plead guilty or be convicted by a jury.
