A federal judge has set aside the conviction of a former USC water polo coach charged with participating in a vast college admissions fraud and bribery scheme and ordered a new trial.
His trial was the second toinvestigation, which exposed how wealthy parents went to extremes to secure spots for their children at schools like Stanford, Yale and USC.
They did so with the help of William “Rick” Singer, a California college admissions consultant who admitted in 2019 to facilitating college entrance exam cheating and bribing coaches to secure his clients’ children’s admission as phony athletes. Prosecutors had claimed that in exchange for about $200,000 bribes, Vavic misled USC admissions officials into believing that unqualified high school students belonged on his championship water polo team.of that money, $100,000, was to designate the son of a private equity financier as a fake athletic recruit, Talawani said the government needed to prove the money benefited Vavic while harming USC’s interests.
But Talwani said a prosecutor misstated the law by arguing during closing arguments that jurors could convict Vavic based solely on a misrepresentation and professional benefits he gained from bringing in money and nothing more. “And, however distasteful, there is nothing inherently illegal about a private institution accepting money in exchange for a student’s admission,” Talwani said.
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