A hefty bill.
Those who have plead guilty to crimes
associated with the college admissions scandal have been
rolling into court for the past few months to receive their
sentences. The scandal burst into view last winter when charges
were brought against parents who had bribed university officials in
order to get their children accepted. Famous names have graced the
headlines including, Aunt Becky and founder of surf-adjacent brand
Mossimo, Mossimo, Felicity Huffman though not her husband William
H. Macy and less famous but equally rich including Kelly Slater’s ex-business partner and
one-time World Surf League executive Jefferey Bizzack whom, in a
2017 Tracks interview, Kelly referred to as “…partner in
everything I’ve done in the past few years… I’ve been the face of
it but Jeff is just the bones and structure of everything that
we’ve done.”
According to The Los
Angeles Times:
Like 11 parents who have pleaded guilty and were sentenced
before him, Bizzack admitted conspiring with William “Rick” Singer,
a Newport Beach consultant who fixed SAT and ACT tests for his
clients’ children and passed them off as top recruits for sports
they didn’t actually play.
Bizzack — a former executive for the World Surf League, the
clothing company Outerknown and the Kelly Slater Wave Co. — met
Singer (the mastermind in April 2017, after being introduced
by a mutual friend, according to a report prepared by a probation
officer.
Just a few months later, prosecutors wrote in a memorandum,
the two had agreed to tap what Singer called his “side door” at USC
— a scheme that required bribing coaches or school officials to
usher in his clients’ children as phony athletic recruits.
Singer tasked a former USC coach with creating a bogus
recruiting profile for Bizzack’s son, which depicted the boy as a
“nationally ranked volleyball player, high school team captain and
starting setter, and the recipient of a number of league awards,”
Kristen Kearney, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote in a sentencing
memorandum.
Because Bizzack’s son didn’t play volleyball competitively,
his profile featured a picture of someone else playing the
sport.
For his crime, Bizzack, sentenced yesterday, received 2 months
jail time, a fine of $250,000 and 300 hours of community service
and…I’m going to be real honest here. This whole college admissions
thing has confused me greatly from the start. USC, most often
referred to as the University of Spoiled Children, is a private
school very popular amongst wealthy southern Californians.
How is this behavior not par for their course? I mean, it ain’t
like Bizzack’s kid stole a volleyball scholarship from a deserving
inner-city youth or a spot in the Freshman class of ’19. I’m sure
he got zero scholarship and, furthermore, his dad paid a ton of
money to the university along with Rick Singer for his boy to
attend. USC lets anyone with money right through those brick gates,
especially big donors.
Now, I get our current “eat the rich” climate and am not
defending this sort of lazy, entitled behavior but… can someone
please explain how this is not business as usual for the 1%ers and
especially at USC?
Is this truly shocking behavior?
Also, will Kelly Slater and/or the World Surf League release a
statement defending their bro or is Santa Monica’s finest astride a
very high horse furiously tsk-tsking? Every headline includes the
phrase “Surfing executive” or “World Surf League” or Kelly Slater’s
ex-partner.”
A bit hard to ignore and not release some sort of statement,
no?
