Former Yale women’s soccer coach charged in bribery scandal

Former Yale University women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith has been charged in a major college admissions bribery scandal, along with over 40 others following a federal investigation.

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts released charges on Tuesday morning against Meredith, alleging that the longtime Yale head coach took bribes, totaling well into the six-figures to push through applications for athletic scholarships containing fraudulent information.

According to multiple media reports, the federal court documents allege that Meredith doctored two applications for athletic scholarships, one of which was for an applicant who was not even a soccer player. On that particular application. Meredith, who coached at Yale from 1995-2018, allegedly added a line to a teenager’s application, saying that she was co-captain of a high-level girls team in California, when she in fact did not play the sport at all.

Meredith is included among several dozen names included in the bribery scandal, most notably actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Federal prosecutors have identified over 40 cases across various prestigious institutions, including Georgetown, Wake Forest, UCLA and Stanford, among others.

The cases range from 2011-2019, and involve an estimated $25 million in bribes funneled from parents, to an admissions consultant, to coaches, in order to produce phony college acceptances for their children, as non-legitimate athletic program recruits.