A former UCLA males’s soccer coach was sentenced to eight months behind bars for his position in the sweeping college admissions bribery scheme that introduced down dozens of faculty officers and well-heeled mother and father.
Jorge Salcedo admitted to pocketing $200,000 in bribes to assist get college students get accepted into the college below the guise of being athletic recruits.
In courtroom, Salcedo instructed the choose he took the kickbacks as a result of he needed to purchase a nicer home.
He prevented a sentence of as much as 20 years in jail by pleading responsible to 1 depend of conspiracy to commit federal applications bribery in January.
“I am a different man than I was two years ago, and I will never make decisions like this again,” Salcedo stated throughout a listening to held by way of videoconference.
According to courtroom papers, in 2016, Salcedo agreed with William “Rick” Singer — the college counselor mastermind of the $25 million dishonest scheme — to get Davina and Bruce Isackson’s daughter on the ladies’s soccer roster for a price of $100,000.
Lauren Isackson was listed as a midfielder on the crew’s roster for the 2017 season — however had zero soccer expertise and by no means set foot on the sphere throughout a sport, prosecutors stated.
Salcedo admitted to taking one other six-figure bribe to recruit the son of Xiaoning Sui, of Surrey, British Columbia, to his crew, providing him a scholarship.
The Isacksons have pleaded responsible, and Sui spent 5 months behind bars in reference to the scheme.
More than 40 folks have plead responsible in reference to the sweeping “Operation Varsity Blues” federal investigation.
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, are amongst these jailed in the scandal. Giannulli continues to be serving out a five-month sentence for his position in paying half one million {dollars} in bribes to get his daughters into USC below false pretenses.
Salcedo obtained one of many longest sentences in the payola scheme, and is the third coach to be locked up.
“Mr. Salcedo has demonstrated that he is a perpetual cheat,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Kearney stated.
Singer, who has additionally pleaded responsible, recorded his telephone calls with mother and father and coaches and is predicted to be the star witness for the prosecution in any circumstances that go to trial.
A Netflix documentary “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal,” launched this week, detailed the investigation into the dishonest plot.
With AP wires
