SEC Bars Former PIMCO CEO for College Admissions Bribery Scandal
The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred Douglas Michael Hodge, former chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO).
The Securities and Exchange Commission has barred Douglas Michael Hodge, former chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), who was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and fined $750,000 for his participation in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, beginning in 2012, Hodge reportedly conspired with Rick Singer and others to pay a total of $525,000 to facilitate his younger daughter’s admission to the University of Southern California as a purported soccer recruit and his son’s admission as a purported football recruit.
In September 2012, Singer sent high school transcripts for Hodge’s younger daughter to the coaches of the USC women’s soccer team, and they fabricated a soccer profile for her, which was submitted as part of her application, securing her admission to the university. After his daughter received a formal acceptance letter, Hodge wired $150,000 to Singer’s for-profit college counseling business and $50,000 to his sham charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, to pay for the bribery scheme.
Similarly, in January 2015, Singer e-mailed two falsified athletic profiles of Hodge’s son, one relating to football and the other to tennis, to Hodge and instructed him to e-mail them to the college’s senior athletic director. Hodge’s son was later approved by the USC subcommittee for athletic admissions based on the falsified football credentials.
After his son was formally accepted, Hodge mailed the athletic director a $75,000 check made payable to USC “Women’s Athletic Board,” a fund she controlled. Hodge also wired $125,000 to Singer’s business and $125,000 to the sham charity.
In October 2019, Hodge pled guilty to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York in March 2021.
Hodge joined PIMCO in 1989, serving as its chief operating officer from 2009 through January 2014, when he became its CEO. He retired in September 2017.
He was an executive committee member on the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) board and a board trustee of The Thacher School in Ojai, California.
Beginning in 1991 and continuing through to his retirement in 2017, Hodge was registered with a succession of broker-dealers affiliated with PIMCO, the last of which was PIMCO Investments LLC. He held FINRA Series 7, 65, and 63 securities licenses.
