Singer, who has pleaded guilty but hasn't been sentenced yet, was long expected to be the government's star witness. In one phone call, Singer told Abdelaziz that a USC official told him Abdelaziz's daughter's fake athletic profile was so well done that she wanted him to use that profile going forward for “anybody who isn't a real basketball player that's a female," according to court documents.
Prosecutors will show jurors emails and phone calls between Singer and the parents that the admissions consultant recorded after he began cooperating with investigators in 2018. It’s “not about wealthy people donating money to universities with the hope that their children get preferential treatment in the admissions process.” “That is what this case is about: lies,” Assistant U.S. Prosecutors say the parents were well aware their payments were designed to get their kids into school as athletic recruits with fake or embellished credentials as part of Singer's so-called, side-door scheme. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, is charged with paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters’ ways into Harvard and Stanford. The parents have so far received punishments ranging from probation to nine months in prison.Ībdelaziz, of Las Vegas, is accused of paying $300,000 to the sham charity run by the scheme's mastermind - admissions consultant Rick Singer - to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn't even make it onto her high school's varsity team.
#RICK SINGER TV#
Thirty three other parents have pleaded guilty, including TV actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli.
#RICK SINGER TRIAL#
The first trial in the so-called “Operation Varsity Blues” case is getting underway in Boston's federal court more than two years after prosecutors arrested 50 parents, athletic coaches and others in the scheme that embroiled elite universities across the country. “It's not illegal to give money to schools with the hope that it helps your kid get in,” Abdelaziz's attorney, Brian Kelly, told jurors in his opening statement.