USC accused of fraud by 'Varsity Blues' parent whose conviction was overturned

A Massachusetts father involved in the “Varsity Blues” scandal filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California on Friday, demanding the return of a $100,000 donation he made in connection with his son's admission, as well as $75 million in damages for alleged fraud and deception by the university.

John Wilson, a former executive at Gap and Staples, was convicted in 2021 of conspiracy, fraud and bribery in the college admissions system. An appeals court dismissed those charges last year because prosecutors failed to prove an “overarching conspiracy” involving corrupt college consultant Rick Singer. Wilson has since launched a campaign to clear his family's name.

In addition to the lawsuit against USC in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 65-year-old has filed a defamation suit against Netflix over a film about the scandal and launched a media offensive against what he sees as unjustified prosecution that cost him his life savings.

“I think it's important for us to set the record straight and do everything I can to restore my family's reputation,” Wilson said in an interview Friday.

Wilson hired Singer in 2010 to tutor his son Johnny and later as a college admissions adviser. The teenager was accepted to USC as a water polo recruit in 2014 after Singer advised the family to donate $100,000 to the athletic department.

Federal prosecutors called that donation an illegal bribe to USC. In his lawsuit, Wilson claims he confirmed Singer's instructions to donate to the university with two employees — the head coach of the water polo team and an athletic department administrator — who both said the gift would facilitate his son's admission and was “consistent with accepted school policies and certainly not illegal or impermissible.”

After federal prosecutors filed charges against Singer and 33 parents in 2019, USC said it was a victim of the plot and that accepting donations to facilitate admission violated university policy.

Wilson's lawsuit called USC's stance “nothing short of reprehensible” given what he said university officials had previously told him and which fueled the criminal case against him. The lawsuit criticized USC's decision to keep the Wilson donation as a “deeply troubling double standard and gross abuse of donor trust.”

In a statement, the USC said: “This lawsuit, which dredges up events that occurred up to ten years ago, has no legal merit.”

The statement added that in the wake of Varsity Blues, USC has made “a number of significant changes to prevent abuse of the athletic admissions process,” including the introduction of multiple layers of controls.

Singer, the mastermind of the attack, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison last year. Some of his high-profile clients, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin's husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, served sentences of five months or less.

A jury found Wilson guilty of filing a false tax return, bribery and several fraud charges, but his defense attorney appealed, arguing that tickets were not property under mail and wire fraud. An appeals court agreed and dismissed all charges except the tax charge. After prosecutors declined to retry Wilson, a judge sentenced him to one year of probation – including six months of house arrest – for filing the false tax return.

Wilson said the $75 million in damages he is seeking are based on his legal fees – $10 million – and his lost income, which he calculated at $4.5 million a year for six years.

“We took those numbers and essentially doubled them because of the pain and suffering,” Wilson said.