Appeals court overturns convictions of two parents in admissions scandal
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned convictions of two parents accused of paying bribes to secure their children’s admissions to college as athletic recruits. The convictions had been tied to a scheme nicknamed “Operation Varsity Blues” that resulted in dozens of convictions of wealthy parents, athletic officials and others who participated, and sparked scrutiny over the influence of money on the competitive world of elite college admissions.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit vacated all of the convictions against Gamal Abdelaziz, and all but one of the convictions against John Wilson. It affirmed Wilson’s conviction for filing a false tax return.
Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch wrote that the district court had made a mistake in telling the jury that admissions slots constitute property, and that prosecutors did not prove that the two men agreed to join the broader conspiracy.
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Lynch wrote that the government introduced “a significant amount of powerful evidence related to other parents’ wrongdoing in which these defendants played no part, creating an unacceptable risk that the jury convicted Abdelaziz and Wilson based on others’ conduct rather than their own.”
Lynch wrote that they were considering, among other things, whether the way the case was charged and tried deprived the men of a fair trial on their own conduct, rather than the conduct of others.
“Nothing in this opinion should be taken as approval of the defendants’ conduct in seeking college admission for their children,” she wrote.
Both men were business executives who agreed to make payments purportedly to university accounts on the advice of a college-admissions consultant. The consultant, William “Rick” Singer, agreed to work with the FBI in 2018 after he was identified in the bribery scheme which included many wealthy and well-known people, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
Many of the parents pleaded guilty, but Abdelaziz and Wilson chose to fight the fraud, bribery and conspiracy charges against them.
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Both men agreed with Singer to make payments purportedly to university accounts to secure their children’s admission as athletic recruits. Their defense at trial and on appeal, the judge wrote, is that they believed Singer’s services and those payments were legitimate.
A jury convicted Abdelaziz and Wilson in October 2021 of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit bribery. Wilson was also convicted of three counts of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, two counts of federal programs bribery, and one count of filing a false tax return.
Abdelaziz was accused of paying $300,000 to the University of Southern California to secure his daughter’s admission as a recruited basketball player, although she was not an athlete of that caliber.
Wilson was accused of paying $220,000 to have his son named a USC water-polo recruit and another $1 million to get his daughters into Harvard and Stanford universities as sailing recruits.
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Abdelaziz maintained that he believed this option to be at least tacitly approved by the school, according to the court documents.
Attorneys for Wilson could not immediately be reached, and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Massachusetts did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
“This is why people go to trial — to put the government’s theories to the test,” said Brian T. Kelly, an attorney for Abdelaziz.
“I don’t know where to go to get Mr. Abdelaziz’s good name back,” Kelly said. “Hopefully he can put this whole matter behind him now.”
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Source: The Washington Post
