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Ex-USC soccer coach tells of faking athletic credentials

College Admissions Bribery
Posted at 2:44 PM, Sep 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-09-27 16:44:45-04

BOSTON (AP) — A former assistant soccer coach at the University of Southern California testified Monday that she regularly created fake athletic profiles with exaggerated accomplishments and images she found on Google to help get unqualified students admitted.

Laura Janke took the stand in U.S. District Court in Boston in the trial of former casino executive Gamal Abdelaziz and former Staples and Gap Inc. executive John Wilson.

They are the first two people to trial in the nationwide college admissions scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues that ensnared dozens of wealthy and famous parents.

According to the Associated Press, during her testimony, she falsified Abdelaziz’s daughter's athletic profile to show that she was recruited for basketball from a school in Hong Kong.

The AP reported that Abdelaziz paid $300,000 to get his daughter into USC.

According to the AP, Wilson paid $220,000 to have his son marked as a USC water polo recruit. He also paid an additional $1 million to get his twin daughters’ into Harvard and Stanford.

Janke worked from 2007 to 2014 at the university, the AP reported.

They have denied all the charges.