Celebrities are not the only people being charged in yesterday’s bombshell report alleging cheating and bribery in the college admissions process.
Federal prosecutors have also named the founder and CEO of a Massachusetts private equity and real estate development firm among the 50 defendants accused of helping students cheat on standardized tests and bribing coaches to lie and say the students were part of the school’s athletics program.
John Wilson, 59, of Hyannis Port, leads a small firm in Hyannis called Hyannis Port Capital, which invests in privately-held companies, according to Wilson’s website. Through its partners, Hyannis Port invests in industrial condominium development projects in Southern California and Nevada. Additionally, the company provides strategic, financial and operational consulting services to private firms throughout the U.S.
According to court documents, Wilson, a resident of Lynnfield, conspired to bribe Jovan Vavic, the University of Southern California water polo coach, to designate his son as a purported recruit to the USC men’s water polo team, thereby facilitating his admission to USC. Wilson also allegedly sought to use bribes to obtain the admission of his two daughters to Stamford University and Harvard University as recruited athletes.
Court documents assert that Wilson’s company wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to the for-profit and nonprofit entities run by William “Rick” Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, California, who is the main defendant charged with facilitating the bribes.
Singer owned and operated the Edge College & Career Network LLC, a for-profit college counseling and preparation business, and was the CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation, a nonprofit corporation that he established as a purported charity. These were the two entities being used to funnel money to various representatives at colleges and universities.
Part of the money from Wilson was funneled to Vavic and some of it was donated to the USC Water Polo team.
Wilson’s son was never going to actually play for the water polo team, according to court documents, but Wilson had the person facilitating the bribes provide a fake resume to make his son look like a collegiate-caliber swimmer.
Court documents also show that under the direction of law enforcement agents, the person facilitating the payments between Wilson and universities eventually had Wilson’s company wire $500,000 to designate one of his daughters as an athletic recruit and therefore secure her a spot at Harvard University.
Wilson is being charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Singer is being charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Athletic coaches from Yale University, Stamford, USC, Wake Forest University and Georgetown University have been being implicated, as well as famous actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
The conspiracy also involved bribing SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a test-taker to secretly take college entrance exams in place of students or to correct the students’ answers after they had taken the exam.
