Former Georgetown head tennis coach pleads guilty in college admissions scam

By Laura Ly, CNN

Former Georgetown University head tennis coach Gordon Ernst pleaded guilty to charges “in connection with soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate the admission of prospective Georgetown applicants and failing to report all of the income from the bribes on his federal income taxes,” according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts.

Gordon Ernst, 54, agreed to plead guilty in September as part of a plea deal with prosecutors and now faces sentencing for one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, three counts of federal programs bribery and one count of filing a false tax return, the US Attorney’s office said.

Prosecutors accused the former coach of soliciting and accepting bribe payments from college admissions consultant Rick Singer and families of prospective applicants to Georgetown to “to facilitate their admission to Georgetown as student athletes” and subsequently failing to report income from bribe payments on his tax returns, the release states.

Ernst’s sentencing is scheduled for March 2, 2022.

“Under the terms of Ernst’s plea agreement, the parties have agreed to a sentence of at least one year and up to four years in prison, two years of supervised release and forfeiture of $3,435,053,” the release states.

Attorney Tracy Miner, who represents Ernst, said she did not have any comment on his plea. “It speaks for itself,” Miner said.

CNN has reached out to Ernst for comment.

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CNN’s Mirna Alsharif contributed to this report.