Sasha and Malia Obama's tennis instructor & the former Yale women's soccer coach

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* Gordon Ernst, former head coach at Georgetown - and the Obamas' tennis instructor - charged in connection to college-
   admissions bribery scheme
* Federal investigation dubbed Operation Varsity Blues netted nearly 50 people, among them nearly a dozen coaches,
   accused of accepting bribes
* Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman charged among 33 parents with paying bribes to get their children into
   top colleges
* Ernst allegedly received bribes totaling more than $2.7million to pass off Georgetown applicants as tennis recruits
* Rudy Meredith, former head coach of Yale University’s soccer team, allegedly accepted $400,000 to help teen get into
   Yale on soccer scholarship
* William Rick Singer, who founded college consulting business Edge College & Career Network, has been identified as
   suspected mastermind of the scheme
* Singer allegedly staged photo shoots for his clients' children showing them playing sports, and even PhotoShopped
   their faces onto stock photos

A former Georgetown University tennis coach who at one time was the instructor of First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters was among the 50 people indicted this morning in a sweeping college admissions scandal.

The bribery scheme, which allegedly also involved actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman, entailed getting students admitted to some of the top schools in the country as recruited athletes - regardless of athletic ability - and helping those applicants cheat on their entrance exams.

Gordon Ernst, who until last year was employed as the head coach of men’s and women’s tennis at Georgetown, was named in the bombshell indictment, along with long-time Yale women's soccer coach Rudy Meredith.

According to the unsealed indictment, between 2012 and 2018, during which time Ernst was the head coach of men's and women's tennis at Georgetown University, he received bribes totalling more than $2.7million, which was falsely labelled as 'consulting.'

In exchange for the payoffs, Ernst allegedly designated at least a dozen applicants as recruits for the Georgetown tennis team, including some who did not play competitively, in order to help them get into the university.

The money came from charitable accounts set up by the accused mastermind of the scheme, William Rick Singer, who founded the college consulting business Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key, in Newport Beach, California.

Prosecutors said parents paid Singer about $25million to bribe coaches and administrators into pretending that their children were athletic recruits to guarantee their admission.

In one instance, according to the documents, Ernst was allegedly paid $400,000 for getting the child of Singer's clients into Georgetown under the guise of tennis recruitment, even though the applicant did not play competitive tennis.

Between September 2015 and August 2016, Ernst allegedly received checks totalling $700,000.

Ernst worked at Georgetown for 12 years before resigning in June 2018. Two months later, he was named the University of Rhode Island’s women's tennis coach.

An inductee of the New England Tennis Hall of Fame, Ernst at one time gave lessons to Michelle Obama and both her daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Ernst has been indicted on a charge with conspiracy to commit racketeering, along with eight other coaches.

Meanwhile, Rudy Meredith, who was the head coach of Yale University’s women’s soccer team from 1995 until November 2018, pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud, honest services wire fraud, and conspiracy; he has been cooperating with the government's investigation since April 2018 and helped build the case against others in hopes of receiving a more lenient sentence.

According to the documents, Meredith accepted a $400,000 bribe from one family to help their child get into Yale on a soccer scholarship, even though he knew she did not play the sport competitively.

To that end, Singer allegedly had an assistant coach for women's soccer at the University of Southern California create a fake profile for the girl, which stated that she was co-captain of a prominent Southern California soccer team and had been on China's junior national development team.

The bogus profile was then forward to Meredith, who designated the applicant as a soccer recruit. 

The girl's family paid Singer a total of $1.2million for his services, according to the indictment.

Other named in the indictment are current Texas tennis coach and former Kansas tennis coach Michael Center, Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer, several USC coaches and UCLA men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo.

Vandemoer was charged with accepting a total of $270,000 in contributions to the school's program for agreeing to recommend two prospective students for admission.

The school said Tuesday that neither student came to Stanford.

Court documents say Salcedo, who was the soccer coach at UCLA, helped get two applicants who did not play competitive soccer into the school in exchange for $100,000 in 2016 and 2018.

US Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling called the bribery scheme the 'largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the department of justice.'

'In return for bribes, these coaches agreed to pretend that certain applicants were recruited, competitive athletes, when, in fact, the applicants were not,' said Lelling. 'As the coaches knew, the students' athletic credentials had been fabricated.'

The documents unsealed from the investigation - called Operation Varsity Blues - showed that 33 parents - among them Full House star Loughlin and Academy Award nominee Huffman - 'paid enormous sums to guarantee their children's admissions to certain schools through the use of bribes and fake academic and athletic credentials.'

Dozens of the parents, including Huffman, were arrested by midday.

Several defendants, among them the Desperate Housewives alum who is married to fellow actor William H. Macy, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Macy, who stars on the show Shameless, has not been charged in connection to the scheme. 

One of the schemes involved parents paying Singer, the founder of the college prep business, $15,000 to $75,000 to have someone take the SAT or ACT for their children.

Singer also allegedly staged photo shoots for his clients' children showing them playing sports, and even PhotoShopped the faces of the applicants onto stock images of young athletes to help them get into the college of their choice on athletic scholarships, according to the documents. 

Singer pleaded guilty this afternoon to charges including racketeering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

The schools involved - Stanford, UCLA, Wake Forest, Yale, Georgetown, University of Texas, University of San Diego, USC - are not believed to have taken part in wrongdoing.

Lelling said the investigation is continuing and authorities believe other parents were involved. The schools themselves are not targets of the investigation, he said.

No students were charged. Authorities said in many cases the teenagers were not aware of what was going on.

Colleges moved quickly to discipline the coaches accused. Stanford fired Vandemoer, UCLA suspended its soccer coach, and Wake Forest did the same with its volleyball coach.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6800411/Sasha-Malia-Obamas-tennis-instructor-former-Yale-womens-soccer-coach-indicted.html