Ex-UCLA Head Soccer Coach Jorge Salcedo To Plead Guilty To Accepting $200K In Bribes
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Former UCLA head men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo will plead guilty to accepting $200,000 in bribes to help get two students admitted to the university.
It's part of the nationwide college admissions scandal in which wealthy parents paid millions of dollars in bribes to have their children admitted to elite schools as fake student-athletes.
The 47-year-old Salcedo, who resigned just days after the scandal broke in March 2019, will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts reported Tuesday.
As part of his deal, prosecutors will recommend he be sentenced to one year of supervised release, a $200,000 forfeiture, a fine and restitution.
Prosecutors say that in July of 2016, Salcedo received $100,000 from Bruce and Davina Isackson, a Bay Area couple, to help facilitate the admission of their daughter, Lauren Isackson, as a soccer player.
Salcedo worked with Newport Beach businessman Rick Singer – the mastermind behind the college admissions scandal – as well as former USC head women's soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin to get Isackson admitted.
Her parents have since plead guilty for their role. Lauren began attending UCLA in the fall of 2016. According to the Los Angeles Times, Isackson actually played on the practice squad.
Then in 2018, Salcedo received another $100,000 to work with both Singer and Khosroshahin to help get the son of Xiaoning Sui, a Chinese woman living in Canada, onto the UCLA men's soccer team, prosecutors say.
On March 12, 2019, the FBI charged 50 people — including 35 parents and nine coaches — in a massive bribery scheme in which wealthy families paid millions to Singer to help their children cheat on standardized tests and bribe test administrators and college coaches to help get their kids into top universities like UCLA, USC, Yale, Stanford and Georgetown.
So far at least 20 parents, including "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman — who served a 14-day sentence in October — have pleaded guilty in the scandal. Another 15, including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, are fighting the charges.
