The next year, the Isacksons hired Singer to get their second daughter into the University of Southern California, first hiring him to improve her score on the ACT college entrance exam, they said. Singer also sent a falsified sports profile claiming the girl, actually an avid equestrian, was a varsity rower. He allegedly sent it to Donna Heinel, a former senior associate athletic director at USC. Heinel, who has pleaded not guilty, later helped Singer get other students in as recruited athletes even if they didn’t participate in the sports, the U.S. claims.
‘Oh My God’
To reimburse Singer for that effort, Bruce Isackson transferred more than $101,000 in stock to a purported charity Singer operated, prosecutors said, and the couple later transferred almost $250,000 in stock to Singer’s foundation.
Last August, the Isacksons reached out to Singer for their youngest child and were caught on a wiretap talking about making a $100,000 donation to Singer to help her cheat on her entrance exam. Singer was cooperating with the U.S. at this point and claimed in discussions with the couple that he was being audited by the IRS. He secretly recorded a meeting with Bruce Isackson in December.
The government said Isackson feared the IRS might discover the bogus charity, which could result in criminal charges for the couple, and worried it would turn into a “front page story” about “getting these kids into school.” According to an FBI transcript, he spoke of “the embarrassment to everyone in the communities.”
“Oh my God,” he said, according to the transcript. “It would be -- yeah. Ugh.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.