College admissions scandal: Ex-UCLA soccer coach pleads guilty to taking $200K in bribes

BOSTON — Jorge Salcedo, a longtime former men’s soccer coach at the University of California, Los Angles, agreed on Tuesday to plead guilty to racketeering charges in the nation’s college admissions scandal after maintaining his innocence for more than a year.

Salcedo, head soccer coach at UCLA from 2004 to 2019, will become the 33rd parent to plead guilty in court and forego trial in the sprawling nationwide “Varsity Blues” admissions scheme. A plea hearing date has not been set.

In a deal with federal prosecutors, Salcedo agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering for accepting $200,000 in bribes to facilitate the admission of two students into UCLA as fake soccer recruits.

Prosecutors recommended Salcedo, 47, receive a sentence at the “low end” of sentencing guidelines that range from 24 to 30 months in prison, one year of supervised release, forfeiture totaling $200,000, an unspecified amount of restitution and a fine.

Prosecutors said Salcedo in 2016 agreed with the scheme’s mastermind Rick Singer, as well as Ali Khosroshahin, a former head coach of women’s soccer at the University of Southern California, and other co-conspirators to designate the daughter of Davina and Bruce Isackson as a soccer recruit to get her accepted into UCLA.

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