Real Estate mogul, Robert Flaxman, who was charged in college admission scandal dies by suicide at 66

Real Estate mogul, Robert Flaxman, who was charged in the college admissions scandal alongside Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, has killed himself.

The 66-year-old from Los Angeles was found hanged in his Malibu home last week after his friends requested a welfare check.

Authorities told TMZ no note was found but he had a history of depression and coroners marked the case as closed.

Flaxman was among 53 people charged with paying Rick Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, to get their kids into prestigious schools. 

He was charged with first paying $250,000 to get his son into the University of San Diego in 2016, and then paying an additional $75,000 to increase his daughter’s ACT scores. 

She was admitted to the University of San Francisco and graduated this year. 

Flaxman ended up pleading guilty to just the charge involving his daughter. He spent one month in prison. 

Last year, Flaxman, who was the CEO of Crown Realty & Development – sold two Beverly Hills mansions for a combined total of $26million. It was $12million less than they were being listed at.  

Flaxman admitted to conspiring with William ‘Rick’ Singer to have his daughter’s ACT exam corrected by a proctor, thereby fraudulently inflating the score, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a sentence of eight months in prison, one year of supervised release and a $40,000 fine.

In earlier court documents, the FBI also accused Flaxman of paying an admissions consultant $250,000 to fabricate application documents that were used to get his son into the University of San Diego. 

Flaxman’s lawyers say he agreed to the testing scheme because his daughter’s test scores were too low to get into college. He wasn’t trying to get her into an elite or exclusive school, they said, and he wasn’t chasing social status ‘ego gratification.’

Flaxman was the owner and CEO of Crown Realty & Development Inc., a real estate firm that operates and develops commercial property in California, Arizona, North Carolina and elsewhere. Its website says it manages nearly $1 billion in property.