Jovan Vavic, who was convicted on bribery and fraud, won a striking
victory after a string of guilty verdicts and guilty pleas by parents,
coaches and others embroiled in the scandal.

Jovan Vavic, a former water polo coach at the University of Southern
California who was convicted of bribery as part of the far-reaching
Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, was granted a new
trial on Thursday by a federal judge in Boston.

Mr. Vavic was accused of taking bribes in the name of the water polo team
and to fund private school tuition for his children, in exchange for
recruiting prospective students as water polo players with trumped-up
credentials. He was convicted of bribery and fraud.

The judge, Indira Talwani, declined to overturn the jury�s verdict, but in
her decision to grant a new trial, she questioned whether the university
could be considered a victim when it had kept the money and even sent
thank-you notes.

The judge said that the government had �conflated� a payment to the water
polo team with a payment to the coach.

�There was no evidence in the record to suggest that Vavic was taking
U.S.C. water polo team money for his own benefit,� she wrote in her
decision. �And, however distasteful, there is nothing inherently illegal
about a private institution accepting money in exchange for a student�s
admission.�

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The order for a new trial was a striking victory for a defendant after a
string of guilty verdicts and guilty pleas involving parents and coaches
and others embroiled in the scandal, including the television actresses
Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. There has been one acquittal in the
case, of a parent whose child was a tennis recruit at Georgetown.

Mr. Vavic was accused of being part of a far-reaching admissions scheme in
which a corrupt private college counselor, William Singer, arranged for
students to be recruited with faked athletic credentials in return for
payments to his foundation and for athletic officials. The universities
were not complicit, prosecutors said.

Mr. Vavic�s lawyers accused Mr. Singer, who has pleaded guilty, of being a
liar and said that Mr. Vavic had been pressured by the fund-raising
culture at the university to recruit athletes whose families could afford
to make large donations but that he wanted the students to be real
athletes.

�In granting a new trial, the court recognizes what we have long argued �
the government�s case is built on the knowingly false statements of
admitted fraudster Rick Singer,� Mr. Vavic�s lawyer, Stephen G. Larson,
said in a statement on Thursday. �As we have demonstrated and the court
now confirms, there is no evidence that Coach Vavic ever used donations to
the U.S.C. water polo program for his own benefit.�

Rachael S. Rollins, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said: �We are
very disappointed in this ruling, which we do not believe is grounded in
the facts or the law. The jury convicted Mr. Vavic on every single count,
and we believe they got it right. At this point, we are reviewing all of
our options.�

Since the indictments were announced in 2019, the government has stressed
that the universities involved were not implicated in the scandal.
However, the scandal has put an unsavory light on athletic recruitment,
exposing how it can be entwined with fund-raising.

In a 60-page decision, the judge said the jury had reached a reasonable
verdict. But she did find that the government might have introduced enough
confusion into the minds of the jury as to warrant a new trial.

During the trial, Mr. Vavic�s lawyers said he had never misappropriated
any money or committed any fraud. They said that about $100,000 of the
cash had been deposited into a U.S.C. account for the water polo teams.
Another $120,000 went to pay private school tuition for his sons � money
they said had come in the form of scholarships from Mr. Singer�s
foundation.

Prosecutors said the foundation had been a conduit for bribery.

The order for a new trial also put wind in the sails of another defendant,
John Wilson, a former executive at Staples and Gap and the founder of a
real estate and private equity firm. Mr. Wilson is appealing his
conviction on charges of paying more than $1.2 million to ensure that his
three children would be admitted to the University of Southern California,
Harvard University and Stanford University as Division I athletic recruits
� even though prosecutors said they would not have qualified based on
their athletic credentials.

Mr. Vavic helped recruit Mr. Wilson�s son to the water polo team.

�Judge Talwani�s ruling correctly rejects the prosecution�s claim that
John Wilson�s donations were bribes,� Mr. Wilson�s lawyer, Noel Francisco,
said in a statement on Thursday. �Indeed, the prosecution cannot identify
a single example in all American legal history where the victim and
beneficiary of a �bribe� were one and the same.�

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/us/jovan-vavic-usc-varsity-blues.html