Former RI Sports Star Ernst Receives Harshest Sentence of Players in Operation Varsity Blues
GoLocalProv News Team
Former RI Sports Star Ernst Receives Harshest Sentence of Players in Operation Varsity Blues
He was both the men's and women's coach at Georgetown and gave lessons to President Barack Obama's family.
The "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal -- and legal case -- included more than 50 other people, including Hollywood stars, wealthy business leaders and coaches at top American universities, who either paid or accepted bribes to admit student applicants.
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Biggest Blues Sentence to Date
It is the longest prison sentence for any of the 48 people sentenced so far in the multimillion-dollar fraud and bribery case. In total, 57 people were charged and nearly all pleaded guilty or were convicted.
Ernst was once one of the most accomplished high school sports stars in Rhode Island, where he was a top-ranked hockey and tennis player before going on to play both sports at Brown University.
The judge -- Indira Talwani -- sentenced Ernst to 30 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release.
Ernst was ordered the forfeiture of $3,435,053.
He pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud; conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery; federal programs bribery; wire fraud and honest services wire fraud – aiding and abetting; mail fraud and honest services mail fraud – aiding and abetting; money laundering – aiding and abetting; filing a false tax return."
The government asked the court to sentence Ernst to, “At least 1 year and up to 4 years in prison, 2 years of supervised release, and forfeiture of $3,435,053."