VICTORIA —
The B.C. government has terminated membership in the Order of British Columbia for a former Canadian Football League player involved in a U.S. college admissions cheating scam.

David Sidoo, a former CFL player and businessman from Vancouver, was appointed to the Order of B.C. in July 2016. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in a Boston federal court in March.

On Friday, the province announced it had revoked Sidoo’s membership in the Order of B.C.

“This process is initiated when a member of the order is convicted of a criminal offence or when their conduct undermines the credibility and integrity of the order,” the province said in a statement.

Sidoo was among 50 prominent parents, university athletic coaches and others charged in the scheme, which authorities say involved rigged entrance exams and bogus athletic credentials to make applicants look like star athletes for sports they didn’t play.

Sidoo paid the admissions consultant at the centre of the scheme US$200,000 to have someone pose as his sons using a fake ID to secure higher scores on their SATs, prosecutors said.

Sidoo and nearly two dozen parents, including Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, pleaded guilty to the charges. Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in prison. Sentences for other parents range from no prison time to nine months behind bars.

Sidoo played professional football for six years for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions. He was CEO of mining firm Advantage Lithium Corp. when he was arrested last year and was also a founding shareholder of an oil and gas company that was sold in 2010 for more than $600 million.

With files from The Associated Press

Jorge Salcedo, the former UCLA men’s soccer coach charged in the college admissions scandal, accused the school of using athlete admissions “as a vehicle to raise funds” in a motion filed by his attorneys in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The motion filed late Thursday seeks authorization to subpoena a wide variety of documents from UCLA and the University of California.

“UCLA’s own internal documents reveal that, for many years, its Athletic Department has facilitated the admission of unqualified applicants — students who do not meet UCLA’s rigorous academic or athletics standards — through the student-athlete admissions process in exchange for huge ‘donations’ by the students’ wealthy parents,” the motion said.

“These documents, which UCLA did not disclose to the government before this prosecution, tell a compelling behind-the-scenes story, one that undermines the Superseding Indictment’s narrative by definitely proving that UCLA is not a victim of a fraud scheme,” it said.

The motion alleged, as well, that UCLA has admitted non-athletes as sports recruits to help boost team grade-point averages. No names or other specifics were provided.

Salcedo resigned in March after being arrested by FBI agents as part of the nationwide investigation into fraudulent college admissions dubbed “Varsity Blues.” Prosecutors alleged the longtime coach accepted $200,000 in bribes from Rick Singer, the scheme’s admitted mastermind, to facilitate the admission of two students to UCLA as soccer recruits though they didn’t play the sport.

Salcedo, the only UCLA coach linked to the investigation, faces five charges, including conspiracy to commit racketeering. He has pleaded not guilty.

A UCLA spokesman didn’t immediately comment on the motion.

The filing by Salcedo’s Boston-based attorneys, Thomas Frongillo and Christina Lindberg, revolves around a confidential investigation UCLA conducted in 2014 into the admissions of two students as athletes. The Times first reported in April details of the probe, which had not been previously disclosed.

The report from the UCLA investigation found that one student was admitted as a recruited track and field athlete, despite having personal-best times that weren’t competitive at the college level, as “quid pro quo” for her parents giving $100,000 to the athletics program. Singer tried to get another student admitted as a water polo player, the report said, though she didn’t play the sport. The college admissions consultant also advised at least two students recruited for the UCLA men’s tennis team, according to the report, despite the school categorizing their athletic ability as “limited.”

The report said the admission of the would-be water polo player was rejected after her lack of experience in the sport was discovered. The motion, however, alleged that UCLA “reinstated its prior decision” to admit the student and that she graduated from UCLA.

The school responded to the report’s findings by disciplining a handful of coaches and banning donations from families of athletic recruits until they enrolled.

“Well before the events regarding Mr. Salcedo are alleged to have occurred, there is compelling and persuasive proof that UCLA -— not Mr. Salcedo — had originated and executed ‘The Student-Athlete Recruitment Scam,’” the motion said. “Immediately following news of the indictment, UCLA feigned shock and outrage about the allegations concerning Mr. Salcedo and defended its student-athlete admissions process as one of the toughest in the country.”

The motion added: “This information was a veritable road map to what the government now calls the ‘Student-Athlete Recruitment Scam.’”

In mid-April, UCLA said in a statement that it had voluntarily shared information about the report with authorities. Two weeks later, Eric Rosen, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, wrote in an email to Salcedo’s attorneys, which was attached to the motion: “I don’t have the compliance review from UCLA — you’ll have to seek from UCLA.”

A UCLA spokesman said the school provided a copy of the report to authorities in August.

Frongillo, part of Salcedo’s legal team, declined to comment on the motion.

The potential subpoena to UCLA seeks material across 48 categories, including an unredacted copy of the 2014 report, communication from top athletic department officials such as athletic director Dan Guerrero and senior associate athletic director Josh Rebholz, pledge agreements, investigative records and wide-ranging documents about any dealings between Singer and the school.

It also asks for documents connected to the admission of children or relatives of UCLA staffers as recruited athletes. The Times reported in July that a student with no competitive record in gymnastics joined UCLA’s powerhouse team as a recruited athlete in 2016, one of at least 18 students admitted as recruits in recent years who were children of coaches or administrators at the school or had close ties with them.

The second potential subpoena — directed to the University of California — requests five categories of material. They include all communications regarding the 2014 report.

The motion accused UCLA of “stonewalling” efforts by defense attorneys to obtain some of the material through California Public Records Act requests made in April and May by “only producing minimal documents and imposing a litany of objections.”

“It has even tried to hide behind the government’s ‘ongoing criminal investigation’ as an excuse for nonproduction,” the motion said. “Mr. Salcedo’s liberty is at stake. UCLA’s apparent public relations concerns provide no basis for withholding evidence.”

Already charged with resorting to fraud and bribery to get his son into USC, John Wilson was indicted Tuesday on a new count of tax fraud, deepening the Massachusetts financier’s legal troubles and suggesting prosecutors have opened a new line of attack to pressure parents who have resisted plea deals.

For help getting his son into college, Wilson paid $220,000 in 2013 to William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach college admissions consultant who has admitted orchestrating a decade-long scheme to defraud some of the country’s most elite universities through doctored exams, fake athletic credentials and bribes.

Prosecutors allege Wilson was aware that Singer would misrepresent his son’s athletic prowess and intended to bribe Jovan Vavic, USC’s water polo coach. Wilson’s attorneys say the financier’s son was a bona fide water polo player and that Singer had led him to believe the payment was a legitimate donation to USC.

Wilson has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, bribery and money laundering, one of 15 parents who have maintained their innocence in the scandal. Prosecutors are trying to extradite a 16th parent who was arrested in Spain.

Seventeen parents have pleaded guilty to an array of fraud and money laundering charges. Vavic, fired by the university in March, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering, fraud and bribery.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts unsealed a new indictment Tuesday, alleging Wilson committed tax fraud when he wrote off the payments in 2014. The day after his son was admitted to USC as a water polo recruit, Wilson emailed Singer, thanked him for “making this happen” and asked if he could bill him for “consulting or whatever” so he could pay with a corporate account, the indictment says.

“Yes we can send you an invoice for business consulting fees and you may write off as an expense,” Singer wrote.

Wilson’s reply, according to an affidavit filed in federal court: “Awesome!”

Singer’s accountant, Steven Masera, emailed an invoice to an employee at Wilson’s firm, Hyannis Port Capital, requesting $20,000 be paid to Singer for a “professional development program” and $100,000 to Singer’s for-profit counseling company for “business consulting.” Masera also attached a letter thanking Wilson for a $100,000 contribution to Singer’s purported charity.

Once Wilson’s firm wired the $220,000, the indictment says, Singer sent Vavic a $100,000 cashier’s check, made out to the USC men’s water polo program. Wilson wrote off the payments as charitable donations and business expenses on his 2014 tax returns, underreporting his taxable income, prosecutors allege. Wilson’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment. Masera has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering and is cooperating with the government.

Wilson pursued a similar deal in 2018 for his twin daughters, whom he hoped to see matriculate at Stanford or Harvard, prosecutors say. Pressed by Singer — who by that point was cooperating with the government — to commit $1.2 million, Wilson’s firm wired $500,000 to Singer’s foundation in October 2018, the indictment says.

“It’s a $500k donation I am going to make this year,” Wilson wrote to his assistant in an email, according to the indictment. “Tax write off and help getting into colleges.”

His firm wired another $500,000 two months later.

Several of Singer’s clients deducted similar payments from their tax bills, according to charging documents filed in the case. Elisabeth Kimmel, charged with conspiring to have her children admitted to Georgetown and USC as phony athletes, wrote off $275,000 that her family’s charity paid to Singer’s foundation, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. The wife of Homayoun Zadeh, a dentistry professor, asked Singer to furnish them with a tax receipt for a $25,000 donation, the affidavit says.

Zadeh has been charged with conspiring to commit fraud, bribery and money laundering to have his daughter admitted to USC — where he chaired the periodontology department — as a fake lacrosse player. Kimmel and Zadeh have pleaded not guilty.

USC, meanwhile, parted ways Tuesday with three top officials in the athletic department: Steve Lopes, its chief operating and financial officer; Ron Orr, who led fundraising efforts; and Scott Jacobson, who also worked in fundraising.