Several coaches plead not guilty in college bribery scandal

BOSTON – Several former sports coaches and others accused of involvement in the fraud and corruption scandal as part of their college admissions pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering plots on Monday.

Recent developments in federal court came about two weeks after prosecutors announced charges resulting from an investigation into an alleged conspiracy to undermine the process of admission to several leading universities.

Prosecutors blame wealthy parents for funding a bribery scam to get their children into schools, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California, among others. .

Their funds would have been channeled into a two-part system. One party facilitated cheating on ACT and SAT admission tests. In the other case, the candidates were designated as recruited athletes even though they had little or no athletic credentials.

In all, 50 people were charged in a case that raised many questions about inequalities in college admissions.

Monday's appearances were part of the first wave of court proceedings resulting from what investigators called Operation Varsity Blues, with more court appearances – involving executives and wealthy celebrities – coming this week and next. The brain, the academic consultant William "Rick" Singer, pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing justice and racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and fraud. He should be sentenced in June.

Twelve defendants came to the US District Court on Monday afternoon to answer charges of racket conspiracy. They appeared in groups of three before Magistrate Judge Page Kelley in a quick sequence of about an hour. All entered guilty pleas.

Gordon Ernst, a former men's and women's tennis coach in Georgetown, recently resigned from his position as a women's tennis coach at the University of Rhode Island. Prosecutors say Ernst has received more than $ 2.7 million in bribes from Singer from 2012 to 2018 during his tenure in Georgetown. In exchange, according to prosecutors, Ernst designated at least 12 candidates as tennis recruits, including some who did not play competitively – an action that facilitated their admission to the highly selective Jesuit university in Washington, D.C.

Donna Heinel, former Senior Assistant Director of Sports at USC; Jovan Vavic, former water polo coach of the USC; Ali Khosroshahin, former USC women's football coach; Laura Janke, former assistant coach of USC Women's Football; William Ferguson, women's volleyball coach at Wake Forest University, who has already coached at USC; Jorge Salcedo, former men's football coach at the University of California at Los Angeles; Martin Fox, president of a private tennis academy; Igor Dvorskiy, director of a private school in Los Angeles; Mikaela Sanford, an employee of the Singer company; Steven Masera, accountant and financial manager for Singer's company; and Niki Williams, Houston teacher and standardized test administrator.

During the hearing, the defendants spoke little in front of Kelley. In a few words, delivered in a variety of volumes and confidence levels, all 12 claimed that they understood the charges and that they were "not guilty".

If found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and large fines.

The defendants and their lawyers declined to comment when they left the courtroom.

"I'd like to be able to," Vavic says.

Stephen Larson, Vavic's lawyer, said in an email: "Jovan is not only a highly decorated water polo coach, having won 14 national championships, but also a great family man with recognized integrity. innocent of these accusations and will prove it in court. "

Ferguson, the Wake Forest coach, is on administrative leave to fight the charge of wrongdoing. Prosecutors allege that Singer sent Ferguson $ 100,000 in 2017, including $ 40,000 for the Wake Forest women's volleyball program and $ 50,000 for a private camp controlled by the coach. In exchange, the authorities claim that Ferguson has named one of Singer's clients as a volleyball rookie. Shaun Clarke, a Ferguson lawyer, said his client would erase his name.

"No one was admitted to Wake Forest who did not win it, as a student and as an athlete," Clarke said in a statement. "Bill Ferguson does not belong to this indictment."

Thirty-three parents were also charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Many of them are scheduled to appear in court on Friday. Others, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, are scheduled to appear on April 3.

After the scandal, USC announced that it was refusing admission of candidates related to Singer's scam and was reviewing the status of current and former students likely to have been involved. The University of California at Berkeley and other schools have said so. Yale revealed Sunday at the Yale Daily News that he had canceled the admission of a student "because of this case".

Separately on Monday, the education department wrote to presidents of eight universities related to the admissions scandal asking for information to determine if their schools were violating the rules associated with federal student aid programs, in which the agency called a "preliminary inquiry". Requests for information follow a March 13 statement by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that she would look into the matter.

"The allegations made and the evidence cited by the Department of Justice raise questions as to whether your institution is fully complying with its obligations" under federal law and regulation with respect to education, wrote a manager of the agency. The letter, first reported by Politico, was sent to Yale University, Wake Forest University, University of San Diego, University. from Stanford, Georgetown University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, and the University of California at Los Angeles. The list was confirmed by a person familiar with the survey.

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Anderson reported from Washington. Laura Meckler of the Washington Post in Washington contributed to this report.