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A wealthy Manhattan businessman has opened up in an interview about his role in the nationwide college admissions scandal, dishing about his famous co-defendants Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman while also complaining that he must serve one month in a federal prison.
“Why are these people out for blood?” Gregory Abbott said in an interview with the New York Post. He was referring to critics of himself and some of the other 34 affluent parents who spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to help their already privileged children gain admission to top U.S. colleges.
“There are no victims,” insisted Abbott, 68, who, along with his wife Marcia Abbott, pleaded guilty in federal court in March for their role in a bribery scheme orchestrated by college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer.
Abbott also offered assessments of his co-defendants, Huffman and Loughlin, have handled themselves throughout the scandal.
Abbott called Huffman the picture “of grace” as her case unfolded. Like Abbott, Huffman entered an early guilty plea. She also issued a public apology for paying Singer $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT score illegally boosted. On Friday, the “Desperate Housewives” star finished serving 11 days of a 14-day sentence at a minimum-security camp at the Dublin Federal Correctional Institution.
However, Abbott had no kind things to say about Loughlin. He told the Post the former “Full House” star was “tone deaf” for the way she smiled and signed fans’ autographs outside the Boston federal courthouse when she arrived for a hearing in April.
Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have pleaded not guilty to paying Singer and his alleged accomplices at the University of Southern California a total of $500,000 to have their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli, fraudulently designated as star rowers. As purported crew team recruits, Olivia Jade and Isabella gained admission to the prestigious Los Angeles college, though they were never known to row competitively. They also left USC right after their parents were arrested and charged in March.
Abbott, the CEO of a packing company for the food and beverage industry, and his wife Marcia Abbott paid a total of $125,000 to get their daughter’s ACT and SAT scores boosted so that she could get into Duke University, according to the complaint.
By paying Singer to have one of his alleged accomplices proctor the girl’s SAT tests at a West Hollywood testing center, Abbott’s daughter received stellar scores: 800 out of a possible 800 on the math subject test and 710 on the literature subject tests. On her own, Abbott’s daughter scored in the 600s on each of the subject tests.
Gregory and Marcia Abbott pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and were sentenced on Oct. 8. Prosecutors had asked for the couple to be sentenced to six months, while the Abbotts’ attorneys said they should receive probation.
In his letter to the judge, Gregory Abbott apologized for his actions. He explained he buckled under the pressure of his daughter struggling with late-diagnosed Lyme disease.
“In many instances during my life, I have shown integrity and taken the right path under pressure, but in this perfect storm I buckled,” Gregory Abbott said in his letter to the judge. “To every single soul demoralized or offended by my actions, I deeply apologize.”
Abbott sounded less contrite in his interview with the New York Post. He said that, no, he was not “justifying” or “excusing” himself for what he had done. At the same time, Abbott said he had been tricked into going along with the scheme by the “very manipulative” Singer.
“If someone has a reputation of being an expert, it’s our nature to trust (them),’’ Abbott told the Post.
Abbott added that it never occurred to him that what he was doing could be criminal. But as much as he said he “regrets” his actions and knows what he did was “wrong,” he also said he thought it was “understandable” that he would want to do right by his daughter.
Abbott also told the Post that he didn’t see the point in having to serve time in prison.
“Throwing us in jail for a month is going to change things for minorities?” Abbott asked, referring to arguments by prosecutors and others that the bribery scheme took away top college spots from less privileged but more worthy students.
“Who benefits?’” he said. “Is the United States of America benefiting from the shock and awe of arresting (35) parents who did something wrong?”
