Morrie Tobin, right, told the judge he was ‘sincerely sorry and ashamed for my actions. I sincerely ask for mercy’ before he was sentenced.
Photo: brian snyder/ReutersA Los Angeles businessman whose tip led the government to unravel the massive Operation Varsity Blues college-admissions scam was sentenced to 12 months in prison for his role in a separate securities-fraud case.
In Boston federal court Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton imposed prison time despite the plea made by the lawyer for the tipster, Morrie Tobin, that he should avoid it for his role as a government cooperator, including leading the Justice Department to the largest college admissions investigation in its history.
In a brief statement before the judge handed down the sentence, Mr. Tobin said he was “sincerely sorry and ashamed for my actions. I sincerely ask for mercy.”
Mr. Tobin was being questioned in 2018 by federal investigators in Boston who were looking into an investment scheme, when Mr. Tobin disclosed information that led authorities to the college-admissions case.
Authorities didn’t publicly name him as the tipster. The Wall Street Journal first identified Mr. Tobin as playing that role.
According to people familiar with the investigation, a chain of events unfolded: Federal authorities who were considering making Mr. Tobin a cooperating witness in the fraud case had looked into Mr. Tobin’s bank records and noticed money moving between his bank and an account in Connecticut. Mr. Tobin told them that he had been engaged in a bribery scheme with the then-Yale University women’s soccer coach to get his daughter, who was still in high school, into Yale as a soccer recruit.
That tip led prosecutors to the coach, Rudy Meredith, who in turn led federal authorities to William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach, Calif., college counselor, according to the government. Mr. Singer eventually pleaded guilty to being the ringleader of the college admissions scam that has so far led to criminal charges against 55 people, including dozens of wealthy parents.
So far, 20 parents have been sentenced, and two more, actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are set to be sentenced next week. Separately Wednesday, a former Houston public-school employee agreed to plead guilty to facilitating cheating on the SAT and ACT college-entrance exams as part of Mr. Singer’s scheme.
Mr. Tobin was involved in a pump-and-dump investment schemes—in which people conspire to inflate the price of a stock so they can sell it at a profit. The schemes stole “or at least attempted to steal up to $15 million from deceived investors” over five years or more, Judge Gorton said in court Wednesday.
“Your motive was pure and simple greed,” Judge Gorton said.
Yet, the judge noted that Mr. Tobin had been an extraordinary government cooperator, assisting not only in the stock fraud case—in which several other participants have pleaded guilty—but in “this infamous college admissions case.” Judge Gorton said that entitled Mr. Tobin to a “large and unprecedented discount,” and the judge noted that he might have normally imposed eight years in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.
The government had asked for five years of probation, and Mr. Tobin’s lawyer, Brian Kelly, a partner at Nixon Peabody, had also asked for probation. Mr. Tobin was also required to pay a $4 million fine.
Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com
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