"Innocent" is rewriting history. He prepared a false application for the first student he was paid for helping (although her application was too late to be aided by a sailing preference, she was admitted but ultimately expelled by Stanford for including false info on her application).
"Later in the year, Vandemoer at Singer’s request designated a third applicant as a sailing recruit, falsely representing she had 'solid experience at Newport Beach Yacht club and training at the US sailing center in Long Beach,' where she commuted from Las Vegas to compete. The student ultimately chose to attend Nashville’s Vanderbilt University instead of Stanford. Prosecutors said Singer, who by then was cooperating with them, later gave Vandemoer another check for $160,000 to keep their relationship “alive” and to hold a recruitment spot open for another of his clients. In a recorded phone call,Vandemoer said he understood that the student he would recommend wouldn’t be a competitive sailor.
U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel in June gave Vandemoer one of the more lenient sentences of those who have pleaded guilty in the case, noting that the former coach had promptly acknowledged his guilt and had not personally taken the bribe money but instead put it into the school’s sailing program." Merc story
I think the main factor in his lenient sentence was that he didn't pocket the money for himself, like all the other coaches/administrators did. But he did gain indirectly from it, to the extent it helped the success of his program
"Later in the year, Vandemoer at Singer’s request designated a third applicant as a sailing recruit, falsely representing she had 'solid experience at Newport Beach Yacht club and training at the US sailing center in Long Beach,' where she commuted from Las Vegas to compete. The student ultimately chose to attend Nashville’s Vanderbilt University instead of Stanford. Prosecutors said Singer, who by then was cooperating with them, later gave Vandemoer another check for $160,000 to keep their relationship “alive” and to hold a recruitment spot open for another of his clients. In a recorded phone call,Vandemoer said he understood that the student he would recommend wouldn’t be a competitive sailor.
U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel in June gave Vandemoer one of the more lenient sentences of those who have pleaded guilty in the case, noting that the former coach had promptly acknowledged his guilt and had not personally taken the bribe money but instead put it into the school’s sailing program." Merc story
I think the main factor in his lenient sentence was that he didn't pocket the money for himself, like all the other coaches/administrators did. But he did gain indirectly from it, to the extent it helped the success of his program