The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May tossed all the convictions against Gamal Abdelaziz and all but one conviction of another parent, John Wilson. The Boston-based appeals court upheld Wilson's conviction on a charge of filing a false tax return.
Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, was accused of paying $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit. Authorities alleged that Wilson, a former executive at Staples Inc., paid $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to buy his twin daughters' ways into Harvard and Stanford.
Wilson said in an emailed statement last month that the appeals court's decision proves his innocence, and that the donations he made to the athletic programs "were part of a legal system setup by these schools that does not guarantee admissions."