LA developer Robert Flaxman jailed for college admissions scandal kills himself at his Malibu home

LA real estate developer Robert Flaxman, who was charged in the college admissions scandal alongside Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, has killed himself.

The 66-year-old from Los Angeles was found hanged in his Malibu home last week after his friends requested a welfare check.

Authorities told TMZ no note was found but he had a history of depression and coroners marked the case as closed.

In 2019, Flaxman was sentenced to one month in prison for paying $75,000 to help inflate his daughter’s college entrance exam score, after pleading guilty to a single count of fraud and conspiracy. 

He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to one month in prison, one year of supervised release and was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and to pay a fine of $50,000.

He is one of 53 people charged in a widespread college bribery scheme known as the Varsity Blues scandal.

Robert Flaxman, the real estate developer charged in the college admissions scandal alongside Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, has killed himself (pictured outside court in 2019) 

In earlier court documents, the FBI also accused Flaxman of paying an admissions consultant $250,000 to fabricate application documents that were used to get his son into the University of San Diego

Flaxman admitted to conspiring with William ‘Rick’ Singer to have his daughter’s ACT exam corrected by a proctor, thereby fraudulently inflating the score, The Los Angeles Times reported.

He did so by first taking steps to secure extended time for his daughter to take the ACT. 

That was followed by a petition to move the exam to a test center in Houston, Texas, that Singer ‘controlled’ through one of his proctors.

Flaxman’s daughter and the child of another client of Singer both took the ACT with the assistance of a co-conspirator.

Harvard alumnus Mark Riddell assisted in answering exam questions and instructed the students to answer different questions incorrectly so that the ACT would not suspect cheating.  

Flaxman’s daughter used the score to apply to several schools and ultimately enrolled at one of them, prosecutors said. 

Federal prosecutors had recommended a sentence of eight months in prison, one year of supervised release and a $40,000 fine.

Flaxman was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to one month in prison, one year of supervised release and was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and to pay a fine of $50,000

Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, 59, served 11 days of a 14-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges (pictured outside court in 2019)

Lori Loughlin, pictured with her husband Mossimo Giannulli, is seen outside court in 2019 over the scandal

They did not identify where she goes to college but said the school suspended her for a semester when the scheme was uncovered.

In earlier court documents, the FBI also accused Flaxman of paying an admissions consultant $250,000 to fabricate application documents that were used to get his son into the University of San Diego. 

Those allegations were not pursued, however, and they weren’t included in Flaxman’s plea agreement with prosecutors.

Flaxman’s lawyers say he agreed to the testing scheme because his daughter’s test scores were too low to get into college. 

He wasn’t trying to get her into an elite or exclusive school, they said, and he wasn’t chasing social status ‘ego gratification.’

Prosecutors said he deserved prison time, nonetheless, because his daughter ended up getting involved in the scheme, and because Flaxman sought a tax deduction for the $75,000 bribe, which was funneled through a sham charity. 

Flaxman was the owner and CEO of Crown Realty & Development Inc., a real estate firm that operates and develops commercial property in California, Arizona, North Carolina and elsewhere. Its website says it manages nearly $1 billion in property.

More than 50 people have been charged in the scheme, which involves wealthy and famous parents accused of paying bribes to rig their children’s test scores or to get them admitted to elite universities as recruited athletes.

Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman (pictured with daughters Sophia Grace (left) and Georgia Grace (right) served 11 days of a 14-day jail sentence 

Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, 59, served 11 days of a 14-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges for paying an admissions consultant $15,000 to falsify daughter Sophia’s SAT scores. 

Felicity admitted to paying admissions officer William Singer via his nonprofit Key Worldwide Foundation.

The money went to a proctor to correct wrong answers on Sophia’s SATs. Authorities said the nonprofit was set up as a front to accept bribes. 

In addition to jail time, Felicity also received 250 hours of community service, a $30,000 fine and a year of probation. 

The Emmy-award winning actress tearfully confessed at her sentencing: ‘I was frightened. I was stupid, and I was so wrong.

‘I broke the rule. I have admitted that and I pleaded guilty to this crime. There are no excuses or justifications for my actions.

‘I can promise you that in the months and years to come that I will try and live a more honest life, serve as a better role model for my daughters and family and continue to contribute my time and energies wherever I’m needed.’

In the scandal, it was revealed that Lori (center) and her husband Mossimo paid half a million dollars for their daughters (left and right) to attend USC as rowing recruits despite neither having experience in the sport

She said she ‘betrayed’ her then-18-year-old daughter Sophia who was not aware of her plan.

‘This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty,’ she said. 

In a letter seeking leniency from the court, the actress said she engaged in the scheme after her daughter’s dreams of going to college and pursuing an acting career were jeopardized by her low math score. 

Sophia was kept in the dark about her mother’s actions and confronted her after news of the FBI’s sweeping Operation ‘Varsity Blues’ broke, saying, ‘Why didn’t you believe in me?’ Felicity wrote in her letter. 

Federal authorities said that through her mother’s scheming, Sophia got a bump of 400 points from her earlier score on the PSAT, a practice version of the SAT. 

Prosecutors have not said which colleges her daughter applied to with the fraudulent SAT score. 

Full House star Lori Loughlin pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 to get her two daughters enrolled into University of Southern California in 2019.

After receiving half a million dollars from Loughlin and her husband, Singer arranged to get her daughters Isabella Rose, 23, and Olivia Jade, 22, onto the school’s rowing team, despite them having no background in the sport.

In May 2020, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, 59, pleaded guilty in connection with conspiracy charges in the college admission bribery case. 

Loughlin received a two-month jail sentence along with a fine of $150,000 and 150 hours of community service following the guilty plea. 

She began her sentence at a federal prison in Dublin, California in October of 2020 and was released that December.

Loughlin’s husband Giannulli received a five-month sentence with a fine of $250,000 and 250 hours of community service. 

He began his prison sentence in November of 2020 and was transferred to home confinement in April of 2021, about a month before his sentence ended. 

‘Varsity Blues’ included some Hollywood A-listers but handed out slap-on-the-wrist punishments for the rich and famous

Lori Loughlin  

Two months in prison; two years supervised release, 100 hours of community service, $150,000 fine

Mossimo Giannulli  

Five months in prison; two years supervised release, 100 hours of community service, $150,000 fine

Felicity Huffman got 14 days

Felicity Huffman 

14 days prison, 1 year supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $30,000 

Mark Hauser

Two months in prison, three years of supervised release, fine of $250,000 and 300 hours of community service 

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Douglas Hodge

Nine months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $750,000, 500 hours of community service

Douglas Hodge got the longest sentence: nine months

Gregory Abbott 

1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $45,000

Marcia Abbott 

1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $45,000

Jane Buckingham 

3 weeks in prison, 1 year of supervised release, fine of $40,000

Gordon Caplan

1 month prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $50,000  

Robert Flaxman 

1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised released,  250 hours of community service, fine of $50,000

Agustin Huneus Jr. 

5 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release, 500 hours of community service, $100,000 fine 

Marjorie Klapper 

Three weeks in prison, one year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $9,500

Peter Jan Sartorio 

One year probation, 250 hours of community service, fine of $9,500 

Stephen Semprevivo 

Four months in prison, 2 years supervised release, 500 hours of community service, fine of $100,000 

Devin Sloane 

4 months in prison,  2 years supervised release, 500 hours of community service, fine of $95,000  

Toby Macfarlane 

6 months in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service, fine of $150,000

Jeffrey Bizzack 

2 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service per year of supervised release, fine of $250,000  

Michael Center 

Six months in prison, one year of supervised release, $60,000 forfeiture  

John Vandemoer

One day in jail, two years supervised released with the first six months in home confinement, fine of $10,000 

Karen Littlefair

Five weeks in prison, two years supervised release, 300 hours of community service, fine of $209,000

Martin Fox

Three months in prison, 15 months of supervised release with the first three months in home confinement, fine of $95,000, forfeiture of $245,000 and 250 hours of community service

Jorge Salcedo

Eight months in prison, one year of supervised release and forfeiture of $200,000

Niki Williams

One year of probation and forfeiture of $12,500

Peter Dameris

One day in jail, three years of supervised release, fine of $95,000 and 12 months of home confinement

David Sidoo

90 days in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000

Diane Blake

Six weeks in jail, two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service and a fine of $125,000

Todd Blake

Four months in jail, two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service and a fine of $125,000 

Elizabeth Henriquez

Seven months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $200,000 and 300 hours of community service 

Manuel  Henriquez

Six months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $200,000 and 200 hours of community service

Douglas Hodge

Nine months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $75,000 and 500 hours of community service

Michelle Janavs

Five months in jail, two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine

William McGlashan

Three months in jail, two years of supervised release, $250,000 fine and 250 hours of community service 

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