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USA: The first convictions for the scandal of admission of rich children to top universities

Convictions began in his context big bribery scandal by wealthy parents, with the aim of admitting their children to top universities, falsely presenting them as good athletes.

According to the APE-MPE, a federal jury in Boston found guilty of former casino executive Gamal Aziz and founder of a private equity firm John Wilson for all charges related to the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure the admission of their children to universities.

The verdict followed a 10-1 / 2 hour jury meeting and a four-week trial in a case that brought to light inequalities in higher education and how far wealthy parents can go to secure places for their children in higher education.

Aziz and Wilson are among the 57 people accused of a scam in which wealthy parents conspired with California college admissions counselor William “Rick” Singer to fraudulently secure a place for their children in college.

Singer pleaded guilty in 2019 to accusing him of facilitating fraud and helping to bribe sports coaches so that his clients’ children could appear as good athletes and be admitted to universities thanks to their “performance”.

Aziz, a former Wynn Resorts Ltd executive known as Gamal Abdelaziz, and Wilson, who founded Hyannis Port Capital, listened intently as they read the verdict.

Both convicted of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to bribe federal programs. Wilson was also convicted of six other counts of fraud, bribery and tax offenses.

They face the prospect of years in prison when they are sentenced in February, although the longest sentence imposed on any parent involved in the scandal so far is nine months in prison.

And the two men are expected to appeal.

Their lawyers allege that they too were deceived by Singer, who they say hid his cabinet engineers from them and led them to believe that their money was being used for university donations and not for bribes.

Most of the parents involved in the scandal have already pleaded guilty. Among them was actress Felicity Huffman, the former protagonist of the series “Housewives in Despair”, who was sentenced to two weeks in prison and spent 11 days in prison.

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