Parent sentenced to three weeks in prison


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A Los Angeles-based parenting book author, who paid $35,000 to rig her son’s ACT score to try to gain him admission to USC, was sentenced to three weeks in prison in Boston federal court Wednesday.

Jane Buckingham, who also works as a marketing executive, was one of 33 parents named in an FBI investigation into a college admissions scheme that allowed wealthy parents to pay to falsify their children’s test scores and bribe athletic officials to get their children a spot at elite universities such as USC, Stanford and Yale universities. 

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also imposed a $40,000 fine. Buckingham will be placed on a year of supervised release after she serves her time. 

Buckingham pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit fraud and admitted to paying part of the agreed-upon $50,000 to Newport Beach consultant and scheme ringleader William “Rick” Singer, intending to have her ex-husband pay the remainder. 

Buckingham’s son was set to travel to Houston in July 2018, where a proctor hired by Singer would correct the boy’s answers after he completed the test. In a call transcribed in the investigation, Buckingham told Singer that her son could not fly because he had been diagnosed with tonsillitis. Singer and Buckingham worked out a plan for her son to take the test from home so that he would not suspect the scheme, while the proctor took it remotely. 

“I know this is craziness, I know it is,” Buckingham told Singer. “And then I need you to get him into USC, and then I need you to cure cancer and [make peace] in the Middle East.”

The exam taken on Buckingham’s son’s behalf received a 35 out of 36. In October 2018, Buckingham also talked with Singer about using the same scheme to fabricate her daughter’s ACT score. 

Eleven of 15 parents who pleaded not guilty to their involvement in the scandal in April were hit with a third indictment Tuesday. Actress Lori Loughlin, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and nine other parents were charged with federal program bribery. 

Former Hot Pockets executive Michelle Janavs and former Pimco CEO Douglas Hodge, who bribed officials to have their children admitted to USC as false athletic recruits, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering for their participation in Operation Varsity Blues after federal judges threatened the third indictment.