Face of Nation : BOSTON — A California title insurance executive admitted Friday to paying $450,000 to the ringleader of a nationwide college bribery scheme to facilitate the admissions of his daughter and son into the University of Southern California by having them falsely tagged as soccer and basketball recruits, respectively.
Toby MacFarlane, a former senior executive at WFG National Title Insurance Company from Del Mar, California, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
MacFarlane, a USC graduate, is now the 20th out of 50 defendants to plead guilty in the nation’s college admissions scandal with two more agreeing to plead guilty but awaiting court hearings.
U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton approved an April plea agreement between MacFarlane and prosecutors, who have recommended that he serve 15 months in prison, receive 12 months of supervised release and pay a penalty of $95,000 along with an unspecified amount of restitution. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The judge instructed MacFarlane to say aloud his charges when he took the stand.
“Conspiracy to commit fraud by getting my children into USC as recruited athletes when in fact they’re not,” MacFarlane said.
“Guilty,” he said when asked how he pleads.
It means that MacFarlane waives his right to a trial and cannot appeal the judge’s sentencing, which is set for Nov. 13.
MacFarlane, 56, admitted to paying two separate payments – one totaling $200,000, the other $250,000 – to the nonprofit operate by Rick Singer, a college consultant from Newport Beach, California and mastermind of the college admissions scandal.
The first transaction involved MacFarlane’s daughter. Prosecutors say Singer on Oct emailed MacFarlane’s daughter’s high school transcript and college exam scores to Laura Janke, a former USC women’s soccer assistant coach, on Oct. 3, 2013.
Singer, who has pleaded guilty to four felonies, then funneled $50,000 to a soccer club operated by former USC women’s soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin and Janke to engineer the recruitment conspiracy. Janke pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in April and Khosroshahin has agreed to plead guilty.
Prosecutors say Janke created a fake soccer profile for MacFarlane’s daughter with information supplied by Singer and MacFarlane. It included a photo of her playing soccer and it falsely described her as a “US Club Soccer All American” in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. She was admitted into USC on March 4, 2014.
In May, MacFarlane issued a $200,000 payment to Singer’s college counseling business “The Key,” prosecutors say. Later that month, Singer made a $100,000 payment to the soccer club controlled by Janke and Khosroshahin.
Khosroshahin was fired as head USC women’s soccer coach in 2013 before the daughter started school in 2014. An athletics counselor emailed MacFarlane’s daughter telling her to changer her Friday classes to clear space for travel for games, according to prosecutors. She passed the email to her father for advice. He sent it to Singer, who advised that the daughter say that she has an injury and can’t play for a while.
The new soccer coach emailed the daughter, saying, “I’m sorry but I don’t have you on my list of players. Could you contact me asap please.” The coach also emailed a member of the USC athletics department that the daughter “was on the list from the coaches, but I don’t know who she is and [she] is not counted in my numbers.”
MacFarlane’s daughter graduated in 2018 and never played soccer, prosecutors say.
Two years later, prosecutors say, Janke, Singer and MacFarlane took part in another scheme to get MacFarlane’s son accepted into USC.
They say Janke in November 2016 created a falsified basketball profile for MacFarlane’s son at Singer’s request. The profile was emailed to Donna Heinel, a former USC senior associate athletic director, who has pleaded not guilty to racketeering.
The profile falsely listed the son’s height at 6’1″ and said he had played on his high school varsity team from 2014 to 2016, when he did not play on the team until his senior year. A personal statement drafted by Singer, but ultimately not used, had listed him as actually 5’5″.
Heinel presented the son’s application to the USC subcommittee for athletic admissions on or around January 26, 2017, according to prosecutors. USC issued a conditional acceptance to the son as a student-athlete in February 2017.
On Feb. 23, 2017, MacFarlane sent a $50,000 check to USC Athletics, and the following month USC mailed MacFarlane’s son a formal acceptance letter, prosecutors say. Later MacFarlane issued a $200,000 check to Singer’s company with “Real Estate Consulting” written in the memo line on April 18, 2017.
MacFarlane’s son attended USC briefly but he later withdrew in May 2018, prosecutors say. He never played on the basketball team.
