SCANDALOUS: Bigtime College Athletics Bribery Scheme Nabs Hollywood Stars

Another thread already going at:
http://www.socalsoccer.com/threads/...-former-yale-womens-soccer-coach.16823/unread

United States District Court of Massachusetts announced charges against former Yale women’s soccer head coach Rudy Meredith on Tuesday in one of the most prominent and comprehensive cases as part of the FBI investigation in college admission and bribery scheme. The charges allege that Meredith accepted financial gifts in exchange for helping with the admission of potential students as he designated them as recruits for his team, even though the applicants did not play competitive soccer.

Meredith resigned from his position as head coach of the Yale women’s soccer team in November of 2018. The charges allege that Meredith accept brides in November of 2017 and April of 2018.

The charge alleges that Meredith and William Rick Singer engaged in the practice of designating applicants to Yale as recruits to the women’s soccer team in exchange for personal financial gain beginning in 2015.

The first case that the charges lay out alleges that Singer was approached by a father in November of 2017 who was looking to get his daughter into a top college in exchange for a “donation.”

Singer sent the resume to Meredith with the note that he would change the applicants’ personal statement, which contained references to her art portfolio, to soccer.

Meredith designated the applicant as a recruit for the women’s soccer team, even though he was aware she did not play soccer at that level. Singer paid Meredith $400,000 after the applicant was admitted into Yale. The applicant’s family contributed to $1.2 million to Meredith during and after the admissions process.

The second case against Meredith alleges that Meredith met directly with the father of an applicant in April of 2018 in Boston. Meredith stated in the conversation, which the FBI recorded, that he would designate the applicant as a recruit for the Yale women’s soccer team in exchange for $450,000.

The charges against Meredith are conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud; and honest services wire fraud.

He is not the only college soccer coach listed in the investigation. Former USC women’s head coach Ali Khosroshahin, former USC assistant coach Laura Janke, and current UCLA men’s soccer head coach Jorge Salcedo are also listed as defendants.

The case against Khosroshahin, Janke, and Salcedo alleges that Bruce Isackson and Davina Isackson paid an intermediary, who is referred to as a cooperating witness in the charges, to secure their daughter’s admission to USC - her first choice school - as a recruited athlete.

The case states that the cooperating witness emailed the falsified information to Janke in September of 2015.

The USC assistant athletic director emailed the women’s soccer coach in February of 2016 stating the application had been sent to the regular admissions process due to a “clerical error.”

Khosroshahin, who was fired by USC in 2013, sent the falsified application to Salcedo in May of 2016. UCLA’s student-athlete admissions approved the daughter as a provisional applicant for the fall of 2018.

The case alleges that the cooperating witness directed a payment from a company called Key Worldwide Foundation (KWF) to a sports marketing company controlled by Salcedo in the amount of $100,000 on July 7, 2016. The cooperating witness also states that KWF issued a check to Khosroshahin in the amount of $25,000.

There was a player on the UCLA women’s soccer roster briefly in 2017 with the name Lauren Isackson, who listed her parents as Bruce and Davina on her player profile. She is no longer on the UCLA roster

Longtime UCLA men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo has been placed on leave in the wake of his indictment in the college admissions scandal that's breaking today.

Janke, Khosroshahin, and Salcedo are all charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Khosroshahin and Janke are also involved in another case in the investigation, which took place in 2012, which helped facilitate the admission of a student to USC as a recruit for the soccer team. There were two donations made to Khosroshahin and Janke’s private soccer club for $100,000 after the admission of the student to USC. She never played for the USC soccer team.

The case also alleges that Janke falsified the athletic records for another student to help him earn enrollment to USC on the football team.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/college-sports-scandal-hits-soccer_aid45953
 
Can't wait to see some of the meme's from this one...Yale has a soccer program? Who knew?

https://www.tmz.com/2019/03/12/feli...lin-arrested-college-admissions-bribery-scam/

Yes, Yale has a soccer program and was decent at one point and with new coach, may be again. Even reaching NCAA championship level in early 2000's. Looking at the history of Meredith, you have to question the administration and their decision to leave him at head coach for decades. Even listening to past players, of recent, talk about him and his professionalism, he lost his love for coaching and wasn't in it for the kids, school or anything. He was there for the money and that's sad. Hopefully Yale will turn it around. This scenario is a bad blow and puts a shining light on all incoming recruits for all elite schools. Thankfully, most of our hard working kiddos have nothing to worry about. 99 % of us don't have $400K to splash around. We can barely afford damn club soccer. LOL!
 
I've said this elsewhere, but I didn't realize that being a "recruited athlete" carried that much weight in the admissions process. A "star athlete" sure, I can see that, but for a regular player, who knew?
 
Yes, Yale has a soccer program and was decent at one point and with new coach, may be again. Even reaching NCAA championship level in early 2000's. Looking at the history of Meredith, you have to question the administration and their decision to leave him at head coach for decades. Even listening to past players, of recent, talk about him and his professionalism, he lost his love for coaching and wasn't in it for the kids, school or anything. He was there for the money and that's sad. Hopefully Yale will turn it around. This scenario is a bad blow and puts a shining light on all incoming recruits for all elite schools. Thankfully, most of our hard working kiddos have nothing to worry about. 99 % of us don't have $400K to splash around. We can barely afford damn club soccer. LOL!
 
I've said this elsewhere, but I didn't realize that being a "recruited athlete" carried that much weight in the admissions process. A "star athlete" sure, I can see that, but for a regular player, who knew?
Not a “regular player.” But if you don’t want a scholarship and you’re really good at soccer or fencing or rowing or other non-big-money sports, the coach has major sway to get the kid in.
 
Not a “regular player.” But if you don’t want a scholarship and you’re really good at soccer or fencing or rowing or other non-big-money sports, the coach has major sway to get the kid in.

I have said before that the ideal candidate for a college soccer coach is someone who can play the game (not necessarily at that college's roster-making level), is academically competitive with other applicants (or at least not need an exemption from the college's published minimum GPA and test scores), and whose parents are well enough off that the kid will not need any scholarship money. I guess we now need to add parents willing and able to pay a bribe laundered through an "advisory" service.
 
Why would a coach want a recruit that can't make the roster?
If I had my roster set with people who didn’t need a scholarship, that kid would “make my team” for the price of the scholarship money and his parents extra $100,000. My team isn’t affected, but my wallet is... Pay to play at it’s finest.
 
If I had my roster set with people who didn’t need a scholarship, that kid would “make my team” for the price of the scholarship money and his parents extra $100,000. My team isn’t affected, but my wallet is... Pay to play at it’s finest.
I get why someone might take a bribe, but we were talking about legitimate players. @espola cleared up his point.
 
UCLA Men's Soccer currently has 28 players on their roster on their website right now. The coach can only give out 9.9 scholarhips and only if the scholarship fund is fully funded. That is 17 players on the bench and essentially 18 players not on scholarship (they will spread some scholarship allocation between multiple players). College coaches have huge sway with admissions offices and can get kids into the schools who meet certain minimum thresholds, but those thresholds are usually significantly lower than the academic standards for a regular student to get admitted. Let's presume the coach makes $150K per year and has what they believe to be a very solid core of starters with some solid sub and a few young players who will be starters in the future. Now someone offers them an additional $100K to make their son the number 28 player on the team. Number 28 is not likely to play anyway, so the coach is happy to get the extra $100k. As long as they are not having to award some of their scholarship money to the player, the coach is happy. Unethical, but happy. The thing is, the coaches even have some pull to help get kids in with "preferred walk-on" status and that kid might not even make the roster of 28. Not really any skin off the coaches back and they are financially rewarded. It is essentially embezzling money from their employer, but they get rewarded for their fraud. Even the sailing coach can get kids in this way and they are not usually scholarship kids and the coaches rarely make any meaningful money for the actual coaching job. This is the system that allowed this current controversy. I am okay with the system the way it is, but university administrators probably need to at least make these recruits pass a basic smell test. Maybe an independent person in the admissions office that conducts audits of the athletics recruits to confirm there is more of an athletic resume out there then some doctored picture of some non-athlete on crew athlete's body. I am not an expert, but I could look up just about any athlete worthy of a Division I sport and find legitimate stats and track record for them going back to the time they were 14 years old.
 
Yes, Yale has a soccer program and was decent at one point and with new coach, may be again. Even reaching NCAA championship level in early 2000's. Looking at the history of Meredith, you have to question the administration and their decision to leave him at head coach for decades. Even listening to past players, of recent, talk about him and his professionalism, he lost his love for coaching and wasn't in it for the kids, school or anything. He was there for the money and that's sad. Hopefully Yale will turn it around. This scenario is a bad blow and puts a shining light on all incoming recruits for all elite schools. Thankfully, most of our hard working kiddos have nothing to worry about.......

Your Meredith comments are precise, and its sad. I must share, it’s a darn good thing my kid A) is a real soccer player B) really loves the school C) has nothing to worry about bc she’s a hard working kiddo who as I’m typing this is busting her ass on campus working / training (right thru the spring break).

Regardless how it all shakes out......IMHO The above reference is a recipe for success (w/out daddy warbucks).

That my friend, I’ll take to the bank ;)
 
Your Meredith comments are precise, and its sad. I must share, it’s a darn good thing my kid A) is a real soccer player B) really loves the school C) has nothing to worry about bc she’s a hard working kiddo who as I’m typing this is busting her ass on campus working / training (right thru the spring break).

Regardless how it all shakes out......IMHO The above reference is a recipe for success (w/out daddy warbucks).

That my friend, I’ll take to the bank ;)

ZD, is your kid there? Seems like new coach is pretty squeaky clean and has a pretty impressive winning background, along with a very positive coaching persona. Very well liked. Sucks to have to take over after a nightmare like this.
 
This implies that the money is going to the universities. My understanding was that it was going straight to the coaches as bribes.
I was saying that the money was going to the coaches instead of the University. The University can sell access, but the employee (coach) cannot sell access to their employer. That is why I compared it to embezzlement.
 
ZD, is your kid there? Seems like new coach is pretty squeaky clean and has a pretty impressive winning background, along with a very positive coaching persona. Very well liked. Sucks to have to take over after a nightmare like this.

Gratefully, she is. Other than her butting heads w/him a few times at practice (different coaching style), I don’t know much about the new guy or his staff. One thing is certain, with the increased level of athletic admissions scrutiny(as it should), the average academic index will likely bump up a few basis points, potentially limiting the talent that he’ll be able to land from this point forward.
 
Your Meredith comments are precise, and its sad. I must share, it’s a darn good thing my kid A) is a real soccer player B) really loves the school C) has nothing to worry about bc she’s a hard working kiddo who as I’m typing this is busting her ass on campus working / training (right thru the spring break).

Regardless how it all shakes out......IMHO The above reference is a recipe for success (w/out daddy warbucks).

That my friend, I’ll take to the bank ;)

She is a great player and a great young lady!
 
Not a “regular player.” But if you don’t want a scholarship and you’re really good at soccer or fencing or rowing or other non-big-money sports, the coach has major sway to get the kid in.
How does that work exactly? The coach approaches you and asks whether you are willing to go to the school without any scholarship? That somewhat gives away the fact that you are being recruited as a bench player and may not see much playing time. On the other hand, if this helps get you into the dream school you wanted, then it's all good I guess.

A friend of ours got into a very prestige school with volleyball but without scholarship. She left the team after just one year. It never occurred to me to ask her if she ever intended to actually play college ball.
 
How does that work exactly? The coach approaches you and asks whether you are willing to go to the school without any scholarship? That somewhat gives away the fact that you are being recruited as a bench player and may not see much playing time. On the other hand, if this helps get you into the dream school you wanted, then it's all good I guess.

A friend of ours got into a very prestige school with volleyball but without scholarship. She left the team after just one year. It never occurred to me to ask her if she ever intended to actually play college ball.

In instances I have seen, the parents contact the soccer coach, show him the kid's soccer biography so the coach knows how good a player he is, and add that they will not need any scholarship money. If there are no obstacles in the way (like grades, test scores, or previous professional status) that is usually enough for the legendary "early commit". However, that depends on two factors being true - the kid really is a good enough player, and the parents were serious about not needing the money.
 
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