But the allegations in Khoury’s case are similar, and the coach he is accused of bribing has pleaded guilty in the Varsity Blues probe. Khoury is technically not part of the “Varsity Blues” prosecution because he wasn’t involved with the scheme’s ringleader - admissions consultant Rick Singer - who used his sham charity to funnel bribes to coaches and others. Khoury, founded Wellington, Florida-based B/E Aerospace, an aircraft cabin interiors maker that was bought in 2017 for more than $6 billion. “Even if the defendant could somehow paint Georgetown as corrupt, that does not make it more or less likely that the defendant agreed to join in a conspiracy or bribed a Georgetown employee to get his daughter listed as a fake tennis recruit,” they wrote in a recent court filing.
#Middleman store trial#
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have accused Khoury of trying to make the trial about Georgetown’s fundraising practices in an effort to confuse and distract jurors. “Georgetown and the government seemingly would prefer that the jury deliberate under the false impression that college admissions is a pure meritocracy, which it most certainly is not,” Khoury’s lawyers said in a recent court filing. But they have said in court documents that Khoury’s daughter was properly admitted to Georgetown and that the school regularly treated children whose parents could donate huge sums of money favorably in the admissions process.
Khoury’s lawyers didn’t respond to emails seeking comment ahead of trial. The case revealed a plot to get the children of deep-pocketed parents into elite schools with rigged test scores and bogus athletic credentials. Jury selection in Khoury’s case begins Tuesday in Boston federal court, more than three years after the first arrests were made in the so-called “Operation Varsity Blues” investigation. Authorities say instead Khoury used another middleman to pay off then-Georgetown coach Gordon Ernst in exchange for Ernst recruiting Khoury’s daughter to the tennis team even though she wasn’t a Georgetown-caliber player.
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