A former UCLA men’s soccer coach has agreed to plead guilty to receiving $200,000 in bribes to arrange the admission of two students to the university, according to court papers released Tuesday.
Jorge Salcedo, 47, of Los Angeles, will enter his plea in Boston federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachussetts. A date for the plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.
According to the terms of the plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence at the low end of the sentencing guidelines, one year of supervised release, a fine, forfeiture in the amount of $200,000 and restitution.
In 2016, Salcedo agreed with Newport Beach businessman William “Rick” Singer, Ali Khosroshahin — a former head coach of women’s soccer at USC — and others to facilitate the admission of the daughter of Davina and Bruce Isackson to UCLA as a purported women’s soccer recruit, according to the agreement.
Prosecutors contend that for his part in the deal, Salcedo received $100,000 of the $250,000 that the Isacksons paid Singer. In 2018, Salcedo agreed with Singer and Khosroshahin to “recruit” the son of Xiaoning Sui, another client of Singer’s, to the UCLA men’s soccer team, according to the document. Sui’s son did not play soccer competitively.
In exchange for the recruitment, Salcedo accepted a $100,000 bribe from Singer, the plea agreement states. Sui paid Singer $400,000.
Singer — who ran a sham charitable organization called The Edge College & Career Network, also known as the Key — along with Khosroshahin, Davina and Bruce Isackson, and Sui have all pleaded guilty for their roles in the case.
Dozens of parents and college athletic coaches were implicated in the 52-defendant scandal. Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Huffman was released Oct. 25 from a low-security federal prison camp in Northern California 11 days into a 14-day sentence handed down last September for paying to have a proctor correct her daughter’s answers on a college-entrance exam.
Huffman, 57, was also ordered to spend a year on supervised release, pay a $30,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service. The “Desperate Housewives” actress was the first parent to be sentenced in connection with the wide-ranging college-admissions cheating scandal, a probe dubbed “Varsity Blues.”
“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and money-laundering charges in the scandal.
A judge recently denied the couple’s request to have their case dismissed, noting that defense allegations of misconduct against investigators were “disturbing.” An Oct. 5 trial date is set.
Salcedo, a UCLA graduate, coached the men’s soccer program for 15 seasons but resigned in March 2019, one week after he was charged with conspiring to commit racketeering. He was subsequently charged with conspiring to commit fraud and bribery.