Operation Varsity Blues: Palisades Parent Gets Home Confinement

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA — A Palisades parent and former tech CEO was sentenced to one year of home confinement for his role in the nationwide college admissions scandal. Peter Dameris pled guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

The former CEO of ASGN will also have to pay a $95,000 fine.

Dameris admitted to paying $300,000 to a fake charity arranged by Rick Singer in an attempt to get his son into Georgetown University as a tennis recruit, despite him never playing tennis. Singer sent about half the money to Gordon Ernst, former Georgetown Tennis coach, who helped facilitate his son's admission.

Dameris had asked to receive only probation rather than jail sentence in order to care for a son with leukemia. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns said medical considerations and numerous letters from friends and family played a role in the lenient sentence.

"I really feel for your family, and I understand your anguish," Stearns told Dameris. "You have lived a good life, and I believe you deserve some reward for that."

Ernst resigned from Georgetown in 2018, about a year before he was first charged for his ties to the nationwide college admissions scandal. Prosecutors said Ernst received over $2.7 million between 2007 and 2018 from Singer, the alleged mastermind of the scheme.

Ernst pleaded not guilty to a number of charges such as wire fraud and money laundering.