Manuel Henriquez, a financier accused of paying nearly half a million dollars to rig college entrance exams for two daughters and have one of them admitted to Georgetown as a fake tennis recruit, will plead guilty to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors in Boston said Friday.
The seeming reversal by Henriquez, formerly the chairman and chief executive of Hercules Capital, a publicly traded investment company, is stunning given the scope of his alleged misdeeds, which encompassed both the test-fixing service and athletic recruitment scheme offered by William "Rick" Singer, a Newport Beach, Calif., consultant and the confessed mastermind of a long-running and multifaceted admissions fraud.
A federal judge who has sentenced nine of Singer's former clients has indicated that parents convicted of exploiting both the testing and athletic recruitment scams should expect considerable prison terms.
Agustin Huneeus Jr., a Napa vintner, was sentenced to five months in prison, the longest sentence handed down in the case so far. He admitted conspiring to fix his daughter's SAT score and to have her admitted to the University of Southern California as a bogus water polo player. Huneeus, however, accepted an early deal offered by prosecutors in Boston and avoided being indicted on an additional charge of money laundering conspiracy.
Henriquez balked at the deal and was promptly indicted. He is scheduled to plead guilty Oct. 21 to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges, according to court records. His attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Henriquez, a resident of Atherton, Calif., was charged along with his wife, Elizabeth. There is no indication in court records that Elizabeth Henriquez intends to change her plea, and her attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Henriquez's signaling of a change in plea comes one day after Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of bond manager PIMCO, said he would plead guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. Hodge is scheduled to change his plea in Boston federal court Oct. 21, the same day as Henriquez.
