Authorities alleged that John Wilson, a former executive at Staples Inc., paid $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters…
BOSTON — Federal prosecutors are dropping charges against two parents whose convictions in the sprawling college admissions bribery scandal were overturned by an appeals court, prosecutors said Thursday.
Wilson had been sentenced last year to 15 months in prison and Abdelaziz was sentenced to a year behind bars, after jurors found them guilty in 2021 of buying their kids’ ways into school in the first case to go to trial in the so-called “Operation Varsity Blues” scandal. A court later agreed that they could remain free while they pursued their appeals.
The three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit said the trial judge was wrong in instructing the jury that admissions slot constitutes “property” of the universities under the mail and wire fraud law. The judges found that the government also failed to prove that the parents agreed to join the “overarching conspiracy among Singer and his clients.”
Brian Kelly, an attorney for Abdelaziz, said in a text message that his client “looks forward to putting this case behind him” and is “enormously grateful for his family and friends who supported him throughout this four year ordeal.”
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