BOSTON (Reuters) – A former executive at casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd was sentenced on Wednesday to a year in prison after being convicted of paying $300,000 to bribe his daughter’s way into a university.
Gamal Aziz, 64, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston to the longest prison sentence anyone has received in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal after being convicted in the first trial to result from the case.
He is one of dozens of wealthy parents nationally who have since 2019 faced charges in a case that exposed inequalities in higher education and the lengths wealthy parents would go to secure spots for their children at top schools.
Fifty-seven people have been charged in the investigation, which centers on a scheme in which parents conspired with California college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to secure their children’s college admissions fraudulently.
Singer pleaded guilty to facilitating cheating on college entrance exams and funneling money from the parents to corrupt coaches and athletics officials in order to secure university admission of their children as fake athletes.
Prosecutors alleged that Aziz, who is also known as Gamal Abdelaziz, in 2017 agreed to pay Singer $300,000 to secure his daughter’s admission to the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit, even though she did not play the sport at the time.
Prosecutors said Aziz provided Singer photos of his daughter that he could use to create a phony athletic profile that would be used in the USC admissions process that included fake awards and athletic honors. She was admitted in 2018.
Aziz, a former president of Wynn Resorts’ Macau subsidiary, was convicted alongside another parent, private equity firm founder John Wilson, who is slated to be sentenced next week.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
