A private equity investor and former senior Staples executive was sentenced in federal court in Boston for making false claims that payments he made to the University of Southern California were tax-deductible as a business expense and a charitable contribution. His son's acceptance to USC was the motivation for the monetary donations.
John Wilson, 64, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, was sentenced by Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the U.S. District Court to one year of probation, with the first six months to be served in home confinement, and 250 hours of community service. Wilson was ordered to pay $88,546 in restitution in addition to the $75,000 punishment.
As of October 2021, Wilson had been found guilty by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud. Wilson was also found guilty of two charges of federal program bribery, one count of filing a false tax return, and three counts of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud. In the end, he got 15 months in prison, two years of supervised release, 400 hours of community service, a $200,000 fine, and $88,546 in restitution in February of 2022.
Wilson allegedly agreed to pay William "Rick" Singer $220,000 in 2013 to help his son enroll at USC as a supposed water polo recruit in exchange for payments to the water polo team account. If Wilson wanted to pay Singer from his personal investment firm's business account, he needed Singer to make up an invoice for purported business consultancy fees.
He asked, "Can we make it from The Key for consulting or whatever so that I can pay it from the corporate account?" After Singer's son was admitted to USC, Wilson sent $100,000 to Singer's fake charity, the Key Worldwide Foundation, another $100,000 to Singer's for-profit corporation, The Key, and another $20,000 to Singer himself using the corporate account of his company. Wilson falsely represented some of the funds to be business expenses and the rest to be charitable contributions.
Wilson reunited with Singer in 2018 to propose enrolling his two children in college as "athletic recruits" for sports in which they did not compete. Again, Wilson asked Singer if there was "any way" to make the contributions "tax deductible as like donations to the school."
