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The Manhattan-based law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP issued a statement announcing that "co-chair Gordon Caplan has been placed on leave and will have no further firm management responsibilities," the firm announced Wednesday, March 13 one day after Caplan was charged criminally in a national scheme to rig the admissions system for the country’s most elite schools.
Original report:
A prominent area attorney is among the dozens of high-profile coaches, celebrities and wealthy parents embroiled in a college admissions bribery scheme.
Greenwich resident Gordon Caplan, the co-chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Manhattan was among 50 people charged in the scheme to gain students’ admission into some of the country’s top colleges.
According to investigators, Caplan is accused of paying $75,000 to bribe the proctor of an ACT exam with the help of a college prep company. The FBI wiretapped phone calls between Caplan and a witness who eventually cooperated with the FBI.
Caplan has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. He has made his initial appearance in court and is currently released on a $500,000 bond.
The complaint, which was filed Tuesday following an FBI probe dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” alleges that Caplan and dozens of other parents conspired to get their children into top colleges, including Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest, Georgetown and others.
Others charged include actresses Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and Yale University women’s soccer coach Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith. Huffman, an Academy Award nominee, is a Bedford native.
According to Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, Caplan is “a member of the firm's Executive Committee and a partner in the Private Equity Practice Group and Corporate & Financial Services Department. He focuses on private equity, leveraged buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, venture capital and technology related corporate matters.”
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