Mother sentenced to 3 weeks in jail after allegedly lying about son's race on college apps

Updated

A California woman was sentenced to three weeks in prison after she allegedly paid $15,000 to manipulate her son's ACT answers and claimed on college applications that he was a racial minority, CBS News reports.

In May, Marjorie Klapper, a 51-year-old jewelry business owner from Menlo Park, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and conspiracy in a deal with prosecutors. She had been accused of shelling out $15,000 to a fake charity run by Rick Singer, a college admissions consultant. Singer then reportedly bribed a test proctor to fix her son's ACT answers in 2017.

Klapper, whose lawyers said has "made a modest income by selling jewelry," also purportedly listed her son as African American and Hispanic in order to boost his chances of getting admitted. She additionally alleged that he would be the first in his family to attend college, even though prosecutors said that both she and her husband graduated with degrees.

Before her sentencing, Klapper's attorneys argued that she was unaware that the masterminds behind the college admissions scheme had listed her son as a racial minority. They did, however, admit that she willingly participated in the conspiracy in an effort to make her son, who has a learning disability, feel like a "regular" student, CBS notes.

Prosecutors had requested that Klapper receive a four-year prison sentence, asserting that her actions had "increased the likelihood that her fraud would come at the expense of an actual minority candidate." The woman's lawyers, on the other hand, had asked her to be sentenced to home confinement due to the "shock and humiliation" of her arrest and the "massive, international public shaming" she received in its aftermath, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Klapper is the eighth person to be sentenced in the college admissions scandal. Actress Felicity Huffman reported to federal prison in California on Wednesday after she was handed a two-week sentence. So far, 15 parents have pleaded guilty in the scheme, while 19 others, including "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin, are fighting the charges.

Advertisement