Ex-Hercules Capital exec will plead guilty in college cheating scandal
The founder and former CEO for finance lender Hercules Capital Inc. will cop to charges related to a national college cheating scheme that involves more than 50 people, including other business execs and Hollywood personas, official paperwork shows.
Manuel Henriquez will plead guilty on Monday in connection to fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly making more than $400,000 in bribes, along with his wife Elizabeth, to help their daughter get into Georgetown University as a purported school athlete, according to the Department of Justice. The Henriquezes also allegedly paid to have their younger daughter’s college entrance exam scores fixed.
The Atherton, California, father stepped down after he was charged, Forbes reported.
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 3: Manuel, right, and Elizabeth Henriquez leave the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on April 3, 2019. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Henriquez is due to appear in John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse at 2 p.m. Monday. His attorney did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
He joins more than a dozen parents who have pleaded guilty so far, a number of whom have since been sentenced.
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“Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman was sentenced in September to two weeks in prison for paying $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT scores fixed in 2017. She pleaded guilty in May and reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, on Tuesday.
Los Angeles businessman Devin Sloane, 53, was sentenced on Sept. 24 to four months in prison. Sloane admitted to paying a quarter-million dollars to have his son fraudulently admitted to the University of Southern California as a water polo player.
On Oct. 4, Greenwich, Connecticut lawyer Gordon Caplan, 53, was ordered to spend a month in the slammer for spending $75,000 to rig his daughter’s test scores. The next day, California winemaker Agustin Huneeus Jr. was sentenced to five months behind bars for paying $300,000 to get his daughter into USC.
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New York City parents Gregory and Marcia Abbott, ages 68 and 59, respectively, were also handed a one-month jail sentence after admitting to paying $125,000 to benefit their daughter.
Elizabeth is not shown to have announced plans to cop to a plea.