Ex-USC soccer coach sentenced to home confinement for college admissions scam

That’s a red card.

A former soccer coach at the University of Southern California has been sentenced to six months of home confinement for his role in a college admissions scam.

Ali Khosroshahin, who coached the school’s women’s soccer team from 2007 to 2013, had cooperated with the prosecution but U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston decided time served was not enough because he had brought at least one assistant coach into the scheme where they helped unqualified students gain admission to the school in exchange for money.

Former USC women's soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin (center) arrives at federal court in Boston on June 27, 2019, to face charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. (Charles Krupa/)

In court the former coach blamed his “lies and greed.”

“I want to thank the government for bringing this whole thing to light because if they hadn’t, innocent hardworking students may still be shut out of schools simply because they don’t have the money that others have, and people like me might still be facilitating this,” Khosroshahin said.

Laura Janke, the assistant coach, was sentenced to time served.

“You led someone in a way that really turned their life upside down,” Talwani told Khosroshahin.

Khosroshahin “recruited” or two clients of admissions consultant Rick Singer a year and were paid through money given to the soccer program or the school’s private soccer club.

Khosroshahin testified against former USC men’s and women’s water polo coach Jovan Vavic, who was convicted in April.

The Varsity Blues investigation has brought down several other coaches and the parents of some of the students who used fraudulent test scores and phony athletic achievements to gain admission. Among those charged were actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

Jorge Salcedo, a former men’s soccer coach at UCLA, who also accepted bribes, was previously sentenced to eight months in prison.

Prosecutors are seeking four years for ex-Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon Ernst who took more than $3 million in bribes.

Thus far, 54 of the 57 people charges in connection with the case have been convicted.