How USC athletics found itself caught in the corruption scandal at universities

None of this mattered because Singer had "ins" among many coaches and a director. Thirty-three parents – including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin – have been indicted in the scheme that brought Singer more than $ 25 million over the last decade. As part of Singer's illegal service, he facilitated payments to ACT / SAT school administrators, coaches and administrators, according to the criminal complaint.

Although Singer apparently worked with coaches, her referee was allegedly Donna Heinel, Senior Associate Director of Sports at USC. According to the complaint, she received more than $ 1.3 million in bribes and was admitted by several Singer clients.

Southern Cal announced Tuesday afternoon that Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic, who reportedly received $ 250,000 in winnings, were fired and that the university will take further action in favor of employment, where appropriate.

Former Southern Cal assistant coach Laura Janke and former Ali Khosroshahin women's football coach were also indicted.

"We are aware of the vast ongoing criminal investigation involving universities in the country, including USC," said Southern Cal in a statement. "USC has been accused of no wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government investigation".

Heinel has been charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to millions of dollars. Heinel would also have helped some of the money Singer's clients pay into various Southern Cal funds.

Stanford announced Tuesday that he had terminated his duties as head coach John Vandemoer after the announcement of his plot to charge racketeering.

"Stanford is cooperating with the Department of Justice in its investigation and is deeply concerned about the allegations in this case," Stanford said in its statement. "The university and its athletics programs have the highest expectations of integrity and ethical conduct."

Wake Forest said in a statement that women's volleyball coach Bill Ferguson had been put on administrative leave by the school after his complaint against the racket was unveiled Tuesday. Texas has announced that male tennis coach Michael Center has also been put on leave after being charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Former women's football coach Rudy Meredith, who is an associate witness, was also charged.

"The head coach of women's football at Yale, in exchange for $ 400,000, accepted a candidate as a rookie for the Yale Women's Football team, knowing that he was not even playing competition football, "said Andrew E., District Attorney for Massachusetts, United States. Lelling, said at a press conference Tuesday. "The student was admitted and his parents then donated $ 1.2 million to Singer for this service."

Gordie Ernst, former head of tennis at Georgetown, received $ 950,000 in payments between September 2015 and November 2016 in exchange for the admission of the daughter of the financial executive Manuel Henriquez and "several other students" , according to court documents.

In her candidacy, Henriquez's daughter claimed she was in the top 50 of the United States Tennis Association's junior girls rankings since her second year in high school. The prosecution documents, however, have indicated that she "appears to be ranked 207th in Northern California in the women's under-12 division, with a win / loss record of 2 -8 ".

Ernst was put on leave in December 2017 after the school's intake office identified irregularities in his recruitment practices "and opened an investigation, Georgetown said in a statement. "The investigation revealed that Mr. Ernst had violated the University's admission rules. He separated from the University in 2018. … L & # 39; s & rsquo; University was aware of no alleged criminal activity or acceptance of bribes by Mr. Ernst until she was contacted by later by the US Attorney's Office ".

Lelling said "with the exception of a USC administrator" that "schools were not involved" in the program.

"The coaches have had places for the recruitment of athletes," said Lelling. "The coaches worked with Singer, which means that they accepted the bribes. Singer gave coaches false athletic references. The coaches used these fake sports profiles to convince everyone internally that he was a good rookie for the team. "

Students did not take any sports scholarships, said Lelling. Instead, they used possible slots to enhance their chances of admission. No students were charged with the scam and, according to the court documents, their parents did their best to prevent their children from knowing about the scheme.

Singer, a co-operating witness, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Singer said he created fake profiles "a million times," according to the complaint.

"What Singer did well is calibrate the false references so that they look realistic and less impressive to create suspicion or further scrutiny," said Lelling.

In more than 100 pages of the criminal complaint, it was clear that there was a market for parents willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to simulate everything, even if the parents did not facilitate his work at times.

"Last year, I had a boy who did water polo and when his father sent me the picture, he was too far away from the water," he said. Singer during a telephone conversation listened to. "I said to the father," What happened? "He said he was standing at the bottom of the pool.