Former Cambridge Resident Sentenced to Prison for Swindling Money through Prep School Admissions Business

BOSTON – The owner and operator of a prep school admissions business was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with his role in embezzling funds. 

Mark J. Zimny, 43, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to 63 months in prison, three years of supervised release, forfeiture of $852,564, and restitution of $839,470.  On April 8, 2015, Zimny was convicted by a federal jury of five counts of wire fraud, five counts of unlawful money laundering, two counts of filing false federal tax returns, and one count of bank fraud.  The jury acquitted Zimny on an additional count of bank fraud.

Zimny owned and operated a business called IvyAdmit Consulting Associates that claimed to assist students in obtaining admission to elite American prep schools, colleges, and universities.  In 2008, Zimny defrauded a wealthy couple from Hong Kong of more than $650,000 by promising that if they provided him large funds to give to prep schools in New England for “development contributions,” he could influence admissions decisions to the schools on behalf of the couple’s two children.  Rather than delivering the funds to the schools as he promised, however, Zimny embezzled the funds for his own purposes.   

Furthermore, Zimny defrauded Mt. Washington Bank (now part of East Boston Savings Bank) by providing the bank with false information, including fictitious tax returns that over reported his receipts from IvyAdmit, to support his application for a mortgage loan.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Victor A. Wild of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit and Giselle J. Joffre of Ortiz’s Civil Division.