Jury to decide USC coach’s fate in college bribery trial | iNFOnews
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FILE – Jovan Vavic, a former College of Southern California water polo coach, comes at federal court docket in Boston on March 25, 2019, to experience charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. Through closing arguments in Vavic’s trial on Thursday April 7, 2022, his lawyer, Stephen Larson, claimed that the 60-calendar year-aged, who guided USC’s men’s and women’s water polo groups to 16 nationwide championships, was often acting in the very best pursuits of the college and his team, by no means lied and under no circumstances took a bribe. (AP Image/Steven Senne, File)



Republished April 07, 2022 – 3:07 PM



Unique Publication Day April 07, 2022 – 6:51 AM




BOSTON (AP) — A former h2o polo coach at the University of Southern California experiencing bribery and fraud rates was just executing what he could to elevate cash for his dominant, championship-successful system as athletic officials at the elite Los Angeles school experienced demanded, defense lawyers argued Thursday as the most current trial in the sprawling college bribery scandal wrapped up in Boston federal court.
Jovan Vavic’s attorney, Stephen Larson, also stated in his closing remarks that the 60-calendar year-old, who guided USC’s men’s and women’s water polo teams to 16 nationwide championships, was normally acting in the best interests of the university and his workforce, hardly ever lied and by no means took a bribe.
“Yes he was attempting to get revenue for his workforce, and certainly he was doing whatever he could lawfully,” he explained. “It is very clear Jovan Vavic required to recruit some h2o polo gamers who could be legitimately admitted to USC and whose people could donate to USC. That was his attitude.”
But Assistant U.S Lawyer Leslie Wright painted it as a very clear-minimize scenario of “quid professional quo,” or “this in trade for that.”
She reported Vavic took additional than $200,000 in bribes to pretend athletic qualifications and designate higher education applicants as drinking water polo athletes to get them into USC.
He also helped recruit other individuals to the plan, Wright mentioned, pointing to wiretap transcripts in which Vavic called the arrangement a “win-win” problem and in which he inspired a fellow mentor with uncertainties about the scheme to “just do it.”
“The defendant’s possess text explain to you what you require to know,” she advised the jury, which will start off deliberating Friday.
Vavic is the only coach of the quite a few implicated to challenge in trial his purpose in the scheme, which associated wealthy mother and father paying out bribes to have their kids admitted into elite educational institutions utilizing rigged exam scores or bogus athletic accomplishments.
In all, practically 60 folks were being billed in “Operation Varsity Blues,” like distinguished coaches from Yale and other elite universities, as nicely as rich and famed mom and dad this sort of as “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer spouse Mossimo Giannulli.
In court docket Thursday, Larson argued the funds Vavic received went right into a USC account for his group, and not his personal cash.
And he pressured his client considered the “tuition grants” paid right to Vavic’s sons’ private superior college for their training were being authentic payments from a nonprofit operate by William Singer, who was deemed the mastermind of the bribery scheme.
“The most straightforward clarification is often the real truth,” Larson claimed. “There’s no quid professional quo.”
He argued Vavic was a victim of USC’s want to safeguard its name and include up a “pervasive culture” of accepting wealthy pupils who could supply donations windfalls and that he’d been manipulated by Singer, who Larson branded a “con man” and “chronic liar.”
“This was portion of USC,” Larson mentioned. “It’s all about this wink and a nod. You don’t want this rep out there that USC is a put you can acquire your way into.”
The university, which fired Vavic just after his 2019 arrest, has stressed its admissions procedures are “not on demo.”
Wright also dismissed Larson’s final arguments as a “sideshow.”
“Pretending to recruit unqualified candidates centered on falsified credentials in trade for funds is improper, no issue the place the cash goes or who else is executing it,” she reported. “Common sense tells you it’s incorrect. He crossed the line and in the procedure he broke the law.”



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