California Private Equity Executive Pleads Guilty in College Admissions Case

BOSTON – A former senior executive at TPG Capital, a global private equity firm, pleaded guilty today in connection with his involvement in the college admissions case. 

William E. McGlashan, Jr., 57, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for May 12, 2021. McGlashan was charged in March 2019.

McGlashan, the former managing partner of TPG Growth and co-founder of The Rise Fund, admitted to his role in a scheme to defraud ACT, Inc. by paying William “Rick” Singer to bribe Igor Dvorskiy, a corrupt test administrator, to allow Mark Riddell, a corrupt test “proctor,” to secretly correct McGlashan’s son’s exam answers to obtain a fraudulently inflated score. As a result, McGlashan’s son received a fraudulent ACT score of 34. McGlashan made a purported donation of $50,000 from his personal charitable donation fund to Singer’s sham charity. In turn, Singer paid Dvorskiy and Riddell.

Singer, Dvorskiy, and Riddell have pleaded guilty for their respective roles in the scheme.

Under the terms of McGlashan’s plea agreement, the parties have agreed to a sentence, subject to the Court’s approval, of three months in prison, two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service and a fine of $250,000. 

McGlashan is the 30^th parent to plead guilty in the college admissions case.   

Case information, including the status of each defendant, charging documents and plea agreements are available here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme.

The charge of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud provides for a sentence of up 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Mark Deckett, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie A. Wright, Kristen A. Kearney, Karin M. Bell and Stephen E. Frank of Lelling’s Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.