BOSTON – Former UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo has agreed to plead guilty and admit that he accepted $200,000 in bribes to help the admission of two students as fake athletic recruits, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
A hearing at which he would enter his plea has not yet been scheduled.
Salcedo, 47, is among several sports coaches at universities, including Yale University and Georgetown University, who federal prosecutors have brought charges against related to the U.S. college admissions scandal.
The Los Angeles resident agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering as part of a deal in which prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines. He also agreed not to appeal a sentence below two years in prison, prosecutors said in a statement and court filings.
He also agreed to forfeit the $200,000 in bribes in which he received.
Salcedo is among 53 individuals who were charged with participating in a scheme in which wealthy parents conspired with a California college admissions consultant to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of their children to top schools.
Born in Cerritos, Calif. on Sept. 27, 1972, Salcedo attended UCLA and played for several teams in Major League Soccer, including the LA Galaxy, Columbus Crew, Chicago Fire and Tampa Bay Munity. He also made three appearances for the U.S. men’s national team from 1994-98
He was an assistant coach at UCLA from 2001-03 before becoming head coach the next year, a tenure that ran through 2019.
Salcedo is the son of Hugo Salcedo, a member of the 1972 Olympic men’s soccer team and a well-known and popular soccer official who has worked at FIFA events and for U.S. Soccer and MLS.
Among those implicated in the scandal included actors Lori Loughlin, a Hauppague, N.Y. native, and Felicity Huffman.
Huffman has served time for her involvement while Loughlin is fighting charges in court.
