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On Thursday, former TV Executive Elisabeth Kimmel was sentenced to six weeks in prison for paying over $500,000 to get her two children in well-known universities as athletic recruits, authorities said.
Along with her stay in prison, Kimmel, 57, of Las Vegas, will have two years of probation with the first year to be spent confined in her home, 500 hours of community service, and a fine of $250,000, prosecutors said.
"Despite a privileged upbringing, a net worth totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, and degrees from two of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world—including a law degree—the defendant chose repeatedly to break the law and to buy her children opportunities they did not deserve," the prosecution's sentencing papers said, according to CBS News 8.
She is the 29th parent to be sentenced in the Operation Varsity college admissions scandal, said the U.S. attorney's office in Boston in a statement.
In August, she had pleaded to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud under a plea deal.
Prosecutors said that Kimmel, the former head of Midwest Television Inc. made a deal with William "Rick" Singer, a college admissions consultant and the ringleader of the admissions scam, along with others to pay $250,000 in exchange for her son's admittance to the University of Southern California as a pole vault recruit, despite him not playing the sport.
Kimmel and others made another agreement with Singer to pay $275,000 in exchange for her daughter's admittance to Georgetown University as a tennis recruit, despite her also not playing the sport, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said a tennis admission slot was allegedly alloted to Kimmel's daughter by Gordon Ernst, former Georgetown tennis coach. Ernst has since pleaded guilty to a number of charges and is set to be sentenced in March 2022.
Kimmel had previously pleaded not guilty and sought to have the charges dismissed. Singer previously pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government's investigation. He too is awaiting sentencing.
Dozens of famous and wealthy parents, as well as about a dozen college coaches and athletic administrators, have been charged in the conspiracy, which involved large bribes to get undeserving children into elite U.S. universities with rigged test scores or inflated athletic accomplishments.
The defendants included actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, as well as Loughlin's fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli. All three have already pleaded guilty and served their sentences.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
