An Upper East Side dad has become the first parent involved in the college-admissions scandal to break his silence — griping to The Post that he should never have been sentenced to even a month behind bars.
“Why are these people out for blood?” Manhattan businessman Greg Abbott asked of critics of himself and the slew of other deep-pocketed parents who shelled out thousands of dollars in bribes to try to get their already privileged kids into top universities.
“There are no victims,’’ he insisted of the crime, which involves charges including fraud.
Abbott, 68, and his wife, Marcia, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court in May to shelling out $125,000 to now-notorious college fixer Rick Singer in 2018 to try to get their daughter into Marcia’s alma mater, Duke University.
The money went to ensure a crooked college-admissions test proctor corrected their daughter’s answers on both the SAT and ACT exams.
At their Oct. 8 sentencing, the married millionaires read emotional statements explaining they were only trying to help their daughter because she suffers from Lyme disease.
Abbott, a Princeton University alum who runs the food and drink distribution behemoth International Dispensing Corp., said he was tricked into the bribery scheme by a “very manipulative’’ Singer.
“If someone has a reputation of being an expert, it’s our nature to trust [them],’’ the businessman told The Post by phone.
He said it never occurred to him that what he was doing could be criminal.
Asked if he felt bad about his behavior, the businessman dad replied, “Of course I regret it. It was wrong. I’m not justifying it. I’m not excusing myself.
“But I do think it’s understandable in some respect.”
He added that he “was very disappointed not to get to probation.’’ Prosecutors had asked the judge for an eight-month prison sentence for the couple. Marcia Abbott also was sentenced to a month behind bars.
“Throwing us in jail for a month is going to change things for minorities?” Abbott asked, referring to assertions that the scheme kept more worthy students from getting into top schools, including those from less privileged backgrounds.
“Who benefits?’’ he said. “Is the United States of America benefiting from the shock and awe of arresting 33 parents who did something wrong?”
More than 33 parents — as well as Singer and his alleged cohorts — were slapped with charges in the explosive case.
Other parental defendants included former “Desperate Housewives” TV actress Felicity Huffman, who copped to a plea deal that ended up with her doing just 11 days in the slammer, and ex-“Full House’’ star Lori Loughlin, who is fighting her case.
Abbott called Huffman the picture of “grace’’ through her case, while Loughlin was “tone deaf’’ for signing autographs outside one of her Boston court hearings.
He also had harsh words for Devin Sloane, an LA businessman who pleaded guilty to working with Singer to lie that Sloane’s son was a water-polo star to get him into the University of Southern California.
Sloane’s punishment should be to “wear a Speedo wherever he goes for four months instead of going to jail for four months. When he goes to Beverley Hills or Rodeo Drive, he has to wear Speedo.” Abbott said, referring to the swimwear.
Abbott said that after he serves his four weeks behind bars — in a prison yet to be determined — he plans to take a vacation.
“I’m going to Disneyland,” he said.