Appeals court overturns convictions of two wealthy parents in college admissions scam
Two parents who were found guilty in connection with the sprawling college admissions cheating scheme known as “Operation Varsity Blues” had their convictions vacated by an appeals court judge on Wednesday.
John Wilson and Gamal Abdelaziz were found guilty in 2021 on several counts, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, for allegedly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to scam mastermind Rick Singer to facilitate an admissions spot at the University of Southern California for their children, a scheme Singer called the “side door.”
They were the first parents to be convicted at trial in the scheme. Several other wealthy parents who participated in the scheme, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, agreed to plead guilty.
Now, Wilson’s and Abdelaziz’s convictions have been tossed on largely technical grounds, according to court records.
Circuit Court Judge Sandra Lynch vacated Abdelaziz and Wilson’s mail and wire fraud convictions on Wednesday, stating “the district court erred in instructing the jury that admissions slots constitute property.”
The judge also reversed Wilson’s conspiracy convictions, stating the government failed to prove Abdelaziz or Wilson agreed to join the overarching conspiracy among Singer and his clients, court documents stated.
“This variance prejudiced the defendants by allowing the government to introduce 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 said.
Wilson’s conviction for filing a false tax return was upheld, court documents stated.
Despite vacating the convictions, Judge Lynch notes, “Nothing in this opinion should be taken as approval of the defendants’ conduct in seeking college admission for their children.”
The decision represents a significant setback for prosecutors, who charged more than 50 wealthy parents and college athletics officials in 2019 in connection with the nationwide scam. Almost all of them pleaded guilty rather than taking the cases to trial.
As part of the scheme, Singer and his allies helped college applicants cheat on standardized tests, falsified their athletic resumes, bribed the people who decide which students get admitted, and directed the parents to falsely report the money was for charity.
According to authorities, Abdelaziz agreed to pay Singer $300,000 in 2017 to facilitate his daughter’s admission to USC as a purported basketball recruit based on falsified athletic credentials.
Wilson agreed to pay $220,000 to facilitate his son’s admission to USC as a purported water polo recruit in 2013, and in 2018 he “agreed to pay Singer an amount, ultimately totaling $1.5 million, to facilitate his twin daughters’ admissions to Stanford and Harvard as purported athletic recruits,” court documents say.
Wilson had been sentenced to 15 months in prison and Abdelaziz had been sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Singer pleaded guilty to several charges and cooperated with the government and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
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