Wilson is accused of paying $200,000 to win his son’s admission to USC as a water polo player and another $1.5 million to get his daughters into Stanford and Harvard universities as athletes. 

None of the schools or students in the case were charged. 

Lauren Bartlett, a spokeswoman for USC, declined to comment.

Lawyers for both parents—the first two of six to go to trial after 33 pleaded guilty—have argued that Singer duped their clients into believing they were simply donating to USC and that hundreds of parents had successfully used his strategy, sanctioned by the schools. At the trial, now in its second week of testimony in federal court in Boston, both attorneys questioned Chassin about why the school kept a VIP list and whether it swayed admissions decisions.

Sheketoff asked Chassin if she remembered if she and her associates on the school’s athletic admissions subcommittee, or SubCo, had discussed “an East coast student” whose father committed to giving $500,000 to USC, or a “walk-on golfer”—one who joins the team without being recruited—whose parents donated $3 million. Both were on the list.

“I don’t remember every single student from hundreds of SubCo meetings we had and what information that was available,” Chassin said. 

Michael Kendall, a lawyer for Wilson, asked Chassin if the subcommittee considered donations that parents of athletes might make to the school, noting that the VIP list included such estimates. 

“We were sometimes aware that there were students who were also of interest to other folks around the university,” Chassin said. But she said “we were focused solely on the students’ athletic talent.”

Advantages Of Wealth
USC says it began cooperating with the Boston U.S. attorney’s office after it learned of the misconduct, and performed an internal review that resulted in the firing of the men’s water polo coach and an athletic administrator, both of whom have pleaded not guilty in the case.  

Chassin testified on Tuesday that USC also expelled some students or rescinded admission offers after concluding they had violated university policy. But she said she spoke to Abdelaziz’s daughter after the charges were announced in 2019 and the girl was surprised to learn her profile included faked athletic information Singer provided. She is currently a senior at the university, Chassin said.