WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Actress Felicity Hoffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison, becoming the first guardian to receive a verdict in a US university fraud scandal.
The verdict was issued after Hoffman pleaded guilty to paying money to rig her daughter's college entrance exam.
Hoffman, 56, a former Oscar nominee for the Desperate House Waves, has apologized for her actions before the verdict, which included a $ 30,000 fine and a year on probation.
Prosecutors demanded that Hoffman be jailed for a month after pleading guilty in May for plotting to pay $ 15,000 in exchange for someone correcting her daughter's answers to the SAT test used for college admission. Prosecutors also demanded that she be fined $ 20,000 and kept under surveillance.
The lawyer defended the actress by saying she regretted and felt shame and urged the court to let her stay out of jail to spend a year on probation, complete 250 hours of social work and pay a $ 20,000 fine.
Hoffman is just one of 51 people charged in a large-scale scheme, in which he accused wealthy parents of conspiracy, using bribery and other gimmicks to ensure their children entered prominent universities including Yale, Stanford and Georgetown.