Billionaire’s son indicted in college admissions cheating scandal

Prosecutors announced Wednesday that another parent has been indicted in the college admissions cheating case, accusing him of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Georgetown University coach to help his daughter get accepted to the school as a tennis recruit.

Amin C. Khoury, 54, who has homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and Mashpee, Massachusetts, was indicted on two counts, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud concerning programs receiving federal funds, and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

He was indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury Tuesday.

Khoury is the 57th person to be charged in the college admission scandal in which actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli have already been sentenced.

Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman for Khoury, said he had nothing to do with William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind of the scheme who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the federal investigation.

“There was no test or class cheating. His child’s college application was completely accurate and contained no misrepresentations about being a fake athlete or anything else. We look forward to this process to rebut the government’s claims,” Sterling said.

Khoury, who is the son of billionaire Amin J. Khoury, is accused of agreeing to pay former Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon Ernst $200,000 to designate his daughter as a tennis recruit to gain admittance to the school, despite the fact that his daughter’s tennis skills were “below that of a typical Georgetown tennis recruit,” according to a press release from prosecutors.

Prosecutors claim Khoury flew to Massachusetts with $200,000 in cash, gave $180,000 of the money to a third party, who then kept $10,000 of the money as a “fee.” Prosecutors allege Ernst “continued to pursue Khoury” to collect the remaining $20,000. Ernst has also been charged in the case.

So far, of the more than 50 defendants charged in connection with the college admissions scandal, more than 40 have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

Of those, 28 parents, including Loughlin and Giannulli, initially pleaded not guilty. Twenty parents have been sentenced, while at least 13 others, including coaches, administrators, members of Singer’s group and Mark Riddell, the expert test taker, have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty.

Loughlin and Giannulli, arguably two of the most high-profile parents to be charged in the case, were sentenced to prison time last month.