A former Georgetown University head tennis coach who pleaded guilty last fall to accepting bribes to help prospective students gain admission to the school was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office Massachusetts.
The sentencing of the coach, Gordon Ernst, 54, of Chevy Chase, Md., and Falmouth, Mass., to 30 months is the heaviest sentence handed down yet in the federal investigation, known as Operation Varsity Blues, which focused on the payment of bribes by wealthy parents to get their children accepted into elite colleges.
“Mr. Ernst was one of the most successful participants in defrauding the college admissions system,” U.S. Attorney Rachel S. Rollins said in a statement. “He pocketed nearly $3.5 million in bribes directly and sold nearly two dozen slots in Georgetown to the highest bidder.’
Mr. Ernst pleaded guilty last fall to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery under federal programs and filing a false tax return, according to court documents.
“Mr. Ernst was a key driver of this corruption in the college admissions process, and the court’s sentence speaks volumes for the seriousness of his conduct,” Ms. Rollins said in the statement.
Lawyers for Mr. Ernst could not be reached for comment.
The disgraced former tennis coach was first arrested in March 2019, along with more than four dozen other coaches, parents and testing center staff. Mr. Ernst pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to name at least 12 students as recruits for Georgetown’s tennis team between 2012 and 2018. Some of those students did not play competitive tennis, according to court documents .
More than 50 people have been charged in connection with the scandal.
Mr. Ernst also failed to report all income from those bribe payments on his federal tax returns, according to a Justice Department statement. His sentencing is one of the latest installments in the Varsity Blues scandal, which has raised new concerns about a college admissions system that often favors wealthy applicants.
Mr. Ernst worked alongside the person prosecutors said was the ringleader of the college admissions scheme, William Singer, who went by the name Rick, a private college counselor who offered wealthy families a “side door” to the best universities around the country, often using athletic recruiters like Mr. Ernst to confuse a college applicant’s qualifications. Mr. Singer, who began cooperating with authorities in 2018, is one of four remaining defendants in the Varsity Blues case who have yet to be sentenced. His hearing is scheduled for September.
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