Douglas Hodge

Prosecutors say that Douglas Hodge, the retired chief executive of the bond giant Pimco, was in a different class, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to get no fewer than four of his seven children into elite schools and attempting to do so with a fifth child. On Friday February 7 2020, a federal judge sentenced Mr. Hodge, who pleaded guilty to two counts — money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud — to nine months in prison. It was the heaviest punishment of any parent who has been sentenced in the admissions scandal, though it fell considerably short of the two years that prosecutors had recommended. The judge said that were it not for Mr. Hodge’s record of philanthropy and other good works, which his lawyers had sought to lay out in detail, he would have sentenced him to more than a year in prison. Mr. Hodge paid $850,000 in bribes — $325,000 to a Georgetown University tennis coach to have his eldest daughter and son admitted to that school as tennis recruits, and $525,000 to have another daughter and son admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits in soccer and football with fabricated qualifications. Mr. Hodge is PIMCO's chief executive officer and a managing director of the firm. He previously served as chief operating officer from 2009–2014. He also serves on PIMCO's executive committee and on the global executive committee for Allianz Asset Management, the governing body of asset management for the Allianz Group. Earlier, Mr. Hodge led the Asia Pacific region from the firm's Tokyo office from 2002–2009. He joined PIMCO in 1989 and has previously served the firm as a senior account manager responsible for client relationships worldwide and as a global product manager. Mr. Hodge currently serves as an executive committee member and on the board of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. He has 32 years of investment experience. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.