2 Varsity Blues verdicts tossed

Appeals court rejects a basis of convictions

A federal appeals court Wednesday overturned the convictions of two parents accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to get their children accepted to elite colleges, rejecting one of the legal theories used by the government to prosecute Hollywood celebrities, titans of industry, corrupt coaches, and administrators in the sprawling Varsity Blues college admissions scandal.

In a 156-page decision, the US First Circuit Court of Appeals vacated all of the conspiracy, bribery, and fraud convictions against Gamal Abdelaziz, 65, a former casino executive who lives in Las Vegas, and John B. Wilson, 63, a real estate private equity investor from Lynnfield and Hyannis Port. The only count the court let stand was one conviction against Wilson for filing a false tax return.

The court noted that the government alleged that Wilson and Abdelaziz conspired to commit two types of mail and wire fraud: honest services fraud, by using their payments to deprive the universities of the honest services of their employees, and property fraud, by depriving the universities of property in the form of “admissions slots.”

“We do hold that the government’s honest services theory is invalid as a matter of law” based on a previous Supreme Court decision “and that, on the arguments offered by the government, the district court erred in instructing the jury that admissions slots constitute property,” the appeals court wrote, adding that it was vacating the mail and wire fraud convictions of Wilson and Abdelaziz.

The court wrote that it also vacated Abdelaziz’s and Wilson’s convictions for conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery because the government failed to prove its claim that the pair agreed to join an “overarching

conspiracy” orchestrated by California college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer, which involved dozens of other parents who had admittedly paid him bribes to get their children into colleges as fake athletic recruits or arranged to have their standardized test scores boosted.

As a result, the court found that prosecutors were allowed to introduce “a significant amount of powerful evidence related to other parents’ wrongdoing in which these defendants played no part, creating an unacceptable risk that the jury convicted Abdelaziz and Wilson based on others’ conduct rather than their own.”

It’s unclear what impact, if any, the ruling will have on others who pled guilty to charges in the nationwide scandal and already served their time.

Fifty-seven people, including wealthy parents, celebrities, college coaches, and administrators, were charged in the sweeping scandal that cast a spotlight on the influence of wealth on college admissions and sent dozens of people to prison. Fifty-one people pleaded guilty, including Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, one parent received a pardon from thenpresident Donald Trump, and another was given a deferred prosecution agreement. One parent was acquitted at trial, and a coach is awaiting a new trial after a judge overturned his conviction.

Wilson and Abdelaziz, who were the first to stand trial, were convicted in October 2021 of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit bribery for paying Singer, who used a sham charity he created to funnel payments to athletic coaches and administrators at Stanford University and the University of Southern California. Wilson was also found guilty of additional fraud and bribery counts and filing a false tax return for claiming a deduction for a $220,000 payment he made in 2014 to have his son admitted to USC as a water polo recruit.

Singer, who cooperated with the FBI after he was confronted about the scheme, never testified at the trial, but recordings of conversations he had with Wilson, Abdelaziz, and other parents were played for jurors.

Defense lawyers had argued that their clients were wrongly charged with being part of the sweeping conspiracy and were prevented from presenting evidence that may have helped them prove that they believed the payments were legitimate donations that went to the universities.

The decision, written by Judge Sandra Lynch, said the evidence showed a significant difference between the conduct of Wilson and Abdelaziz and other parents charged with being part of the conspiracy.

“The government introduced evidence that other parents who purportedly participated in the alleged overarching conspiracy knowingly made payments to university insiders’ personal accounts and paid to alter standardized test scores or have third parties take online classes for their children,” Lynch wrote. “The evidence does not show, and the government does not argue, that Abdelaziz or Wilson engaged in those practices. Evaluating the record as a whole, we conclude that there was insufficient evidence from which a rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants joined the broader conspiracy charged in the indictment.”

In a statement Wednesday, Abdelaziz’s attorneys, Brian T. Kelly and Joshua C. Sharp, said: “Mr. Abdelaziz has maintained his absolute innocence from day one and is enormously grateful that the Appeals Court has reversed his unfair conviction. We are pleased to have represented him in this matter and look forward to Mr. Abdelaziz putting this behind him.”

Kelly said, “We thought it was important to go to trial and test the government’s theories at the appellate level.”

Wilson’s attorney, Noel Francisco, said in a statement that he was pleased the appeals court overturned all of the bribery, fraud, and conspiracy counts against Wilson, “which is the core of the government’s prosecution. It confirms what we’ve known from the beginning— John Wilson’s case is fundamentally different from others in the broader Varsity Blues scandal. His children were all qualified for admission to these schools on their own athletic and academic merits, and none of his money went to enrich any coach but, rather, was directed to the schools themselves.”

He added, “We are examining the opinion to determine the appropriate next steps.”

A spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office declined to comment on the ruling.

Abdelaziz had been sentenced to a year in prison, and Wilson had been sentenced to 15 months, but both men were allowed to remain free while appealing their convictions. Jurors had found that Abdelaziz paid a $300,000 bribe to have his daughter admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake basketball recruit, even though she didn’t make her high school varsity team.

Jurors found Wilson paid $1.2 million in bribes to have his three children admitted to elite colleges as athletic recruits and claimed a portion of it as a tax write-off.

During arguments before the appeals court in November, Francisco argued that the charges were legally flawed on several grounds. He said it was unprecedented for the government to charge Wilson and Abdelaziz with bribery in a case where the recipient of the bribe — USC — was also the victim.

In Wednesday’s opinion, the court found that the government’s theory was flawed as it related to claims that the school was deprived of the honest services of its employees as a result of payments made by parents.

The court also found that the trial judge had erred when he instructed jurors that all admission slots at colleges were considered the property of universities.

“The government’s highly general argument would criminalize a wide swath of conduct,” Lynch wrote. “Under the government’s broad understanding of property applied to admissions slots as a class, embellishments in a kindergarten application could constitute property fraud proscribed by federal law.”