Former chief executive officer of PIMCO sentenced to nine months in prison in ‘Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal

The former chief executive officer of PIMCO, one of the world’s largest investment companies, was sentenced Friday to nine months in federal prison for paying bribes totaling $850,000 to secure his children’s admission to University of Southern California and Georgetown University, according to the US Attorney’s office for Massachusetts.

Douglas Hodge, 61, of Laguna Beach, Calif., was also sentenced to two years of supervised release , 500 hours of community service , and a fine of $750,000, prosecutors said in a press release.

In October 2019, Hodge pleaded guilty to counts of conspiracy, including to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud, as well as money laundering.

Hodge conspired with William “Rick” Singer, a major participant in the college admissions cheating scandal, and others to pay bribes to secure college admissions to four of his children over an 11-year period .

Hodge apologized in a statement read in court, the Associated Press reported.

“I have in my heart the deepest remorse for my actions. I understand and accept that what I did was wrong. I know that I unfairly, and ultimately illegally, tipped the scales in favor of my children over others, over the hopes and dreams of other parents, who had the same aspirations for their children as I did for mine,’’ he said.

In 2008 , Hodge paid Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst $150,000 to recruit his daughter as a tennis player in order to facilitate her admission to the university.

From 2010 to 2011 , Hodge paid Ernst $175,000 after his son’s admittance to Georgetown . Beginning in 2012 , Hodge agreed to pay $525,000 to facilitate admission for another daughter as a soccer recruit and son’s admittance to USC as as a football recruit, the release said.

In 2018, Hodge unsuccessfully attempted to facilitate a third son’s admission to Loyola Marymount University through Singer. However in December of that year, an LMU coach told Singer that Hodge’s son would be denied admission based on his academic qualifications, prosecutors said.