BOSTON — A Lynnfield father accused of involvement in the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal will go to trial in federal court Monday.
Jury selection began on Wednesday in the trial of John Wilson, a former Staples and Gap Inc. executive, along with former casino executive Gamal Abdelaziz of Las Vegas. Opening statements are scheduled to be heard on Monday.
Wilson is accused of allegedly paying William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind of the scheme, $220,000 to have his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a water polo recruit, as well as $1.5 million to have his twin daughters admitted to Harvard and Stanford universities.
In court documents, defense attorneys for Wilson and Abdelaziz say that they believed their money was being used as a donation and that they were misled by Singer.
The case is the first to go to trial in the scandal, which came to light in March 2019 and also included several other wealthy people, such as actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
Wilson, along with his wife, Leslie, and son, John Wilson Jr., sued Netflix in April in Essex Superior Court over their depiction in the documentary “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.”
The lawsuit alleges that the statements made in the documentary about the Wilson family are false, and that Netflix “held Wilson up to public scorn and ridicule and destroyed (the family’s) good name and reputation.”
