If she had “donated” the money to the school the bribe would’ve been legal. I still don’t see what she did as deserving of anything more than public ridicule and embarrassment. If her kid couldn’t get in on ability then she’s not doing him or her any favors.
The most ridiculous part of this story is that the parents paid bribes to get their kids into these schools, but then by all accounts the kids did fine in school. As far as I’m concerned, the biggest “crime” these parents committed is that they exposed the whole college application, admission and enrollment process as a giant fraud.