Final case tied to college bribery scandal heading to federal court

BOSTON — A father accused of bribing a Georgetown University tennis coach to help get his daughter into the school is set to face jurors in the final case linked to the sprawling college admissions bribery scandal to go to trial.

Amin Khoury isn’t accused of working with the mastermind in the scheme that landed TV actresses, prominent businessmen and other wealthy parents behind bars.

Authorities say instead Khoury used another middleman to pay off thenGeorgetown coach Gordon Ernst in exchange for Ernst recruiting Khoury’s daughter to the tennis team even though she wasn’t a Georgetown-caliber player.

Jury selection in Khoury’s case begins Tuesday in Boston federal court, more than three years after the first arrests were made in the so-called “Operation Varsity Blues” investigation. The case revealed a plot to get the children of deep-pocketed parents into elite schools with rigged test scores and bogus athletic credentials.

Khoury’s lawyers said in court documents that Khoury’s daughter was properly admitted to Georgetown and the school regularly treated children whose parents could donate huge sums of money favorably in the admissions process.

“Georgetown and the government seemingly would prefer that the jury deliberate under the false impression that college admissions is a pure meritocracy, which it most certainly is not,” Khoury’s lawyers said in a recent court filing.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have accused Khoury of trying to make the trial about Georgetown’s fundraising practices in an effort to confuse and distract jurors.

“Even if the defendant could somehow paint Georgetown as corrupt, that does not make it more or less likely that the defendant agreed to join in a conspiracy or bribed a Georgetown employee to get his daughter listed as a fake tennis recruit,” they wrote in a recent court filing.