Appeals court tosses convictions of parents in college admissions scandal

Lexi Lonas
·2 min read
2

A federal appeals court on Wednesday exonerated two parents who were found guilty of using bribes to get their children into school, with the ruling overturned on largely technical grounds.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Massachusetts cleared all the convictions for Gamal Abdelaziz and all but one of the convictions for John Wilson, who were involved with “Operation Varsity Blues,” a well-known college admissions scandal that caught dozens of wealthy parents paying their children’s way into prestigious schools.

The three-judge panel said in the 156-page document there were two technical legal issues in the government’s case against Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive who now runs a private equity firm.

The court took issue with the government’s broad argument that led to a lower court instructing jurors to think of admission slots as property of the university, which the judges said was wrong and could have swayed the jury.

They also said the government failed to prove the two parents were in on the larger conspiracy revolving around college admission consultant William Singer, in the same way other parents were.

“We conclude that the evidence was insufficient to prove that these defendants agreed to join the broader charged conspiracy and that the defendants were prejudiced by the variance, and so we vacate the defendants’ conspiracy convictions,” the judges ruled.

Abdelaziz was convicted of fraud and bribery conspiracy after allegedly paying for his daughter to go to the University of Southern California (USC) for basketball.

Wilson was also convicted of fraud and bribery conspiracy, along with additional charges, after paying for his children to get into USC, Harvard and Stanford as athletes.

The U.S. attorney’s office for Massachusetts said they were reviewing the decision by the judges and are “assessing next steps.”

Attorneys for Abdelaziz said their client “has maintained his absolute innocence from day one and is enormously grateful that the Appeals Court has reversed his unfair conviction.”

The Hill has reached out to Wilson’s lawyer for comment.

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