A real estate developer with ties to Arizona resorts has agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in a college admissions scandal that ensnared elite universities, wealthy business leaders and Hollywood actors. 

Robert Flaxman, founder and CEO of Crown Realty & Development, was charged by the Justice Department in March with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Flaxman agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for paying $75,000 to help his daughter cheat on the ACTs, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

A plea hearing is not yet scheduled, the department said.

A document outlining the plea agreement says Flaxman could face 20 years of incarceration, 3 years supervised release and a fine of at least $250,000. 

The U.S. Attorney of Massachusetts, Andrew E. Lelling, recommended Flaxman be on the “low end” of sentencing guidelines and a fine of $40,000. They also recommended 12 months of supervised release and that Flaxman pay restitution to be determined by the court when he’s sentenced.

Flaxman would also have to agree to forfeit any assets seized by the government in the course of its investigation. In total, 14 people charged in the college admissions scandal have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty to bribery or other types of fraud, the government announced Monday.

Thirteen of those were parents, and one was formerly the coach of men’s tennis at the University of Texas at Austin. One of the peoplewho agreed to plead guilty to the same crimes as Flaxman was actress Felicity Huffman, who acted on the television show “Desperate Housewives.”

Flaxman and his company are tied to some major resort projects in Arizona. His company was behind the Montelucia resort in Scottsdale and the redevelopment of the Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley. Crown owned and tried to redevelop the Mountain Shadows site from 2007 until 2015, when it was sold to Westroc Hospitality and Woodbine Development Corp., which developed the resort as it is today.

Crown Realty recently won a years-long legal battle to develop a 96.5-acre chunk of land for an area called City North in Desert Ridge in north Phoenix. 

The company’s website says it has headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, and also has offices in Beverly Hills, Burbank and Paradise Valley. Its projects are primarily in California, Arizona, Virginia, Idaho and North Carolina, the website says. 

The charges against Flaxman

The college admissions bribery scandal, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” involved 50 people who were charged, 33 of whom were parents. 

In some instances, parents paid to have someone else take college entrance exams like the ACT and SAT in place of their children, or to replace their child’s answers with correct ones after they had taken the test, according to court documents.

In other instances, parents paid college coaches to accept their children as recruited athletes despite their lack of involvement in sports.

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Flaxman was accused of paying for both schemes.

Court documents allege Flaxman paid $250,000 to get his son recruited as an athlete to the University of San Diego and $75,000 to help his daughter cheat on her ACT.

Flaxman’s son was admitted to the university in March 2016. In April, Flaxman was sent an invoice for $250,000 by Key Worldwide Foundation, a nonprofit organization. People who participated in the scheme paid bribes to Key Worldwide Foundation under the guise of charitable contributions, authorities allege.

Flaxman sent to the money to the nonprofit group and agreed to describe the payments as donations he made to help “underserved kids.” 

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Separately, in April 2016, Flaxman’s daughter took the ACT and received a relatively low score of 20 out of 36. 

He allegedly paid $75,000 to the foundation to have someone help his daughter answer questions on the ACT at a testing site in Houston. 

Flaxman’s daughter’s score improved: a 28 out of 36.

No Arizona universities were involved in the schemes, though Arizona State University did get a mention — as a place where “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin’s husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, did not want his daughter to go to college.

Reach reporter Rachel Leingang by email at [email protected] or by phone at 602-444-8157, or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

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