No. 22-1129

UNITED STATES,

Appellee,

v.

GAMAL ABDELAZIZ,

Defendant, Appellant.

No. 22-1138

UNITED STATES,

Appellee,

v.

JOHN WILSON,

Defendant, Appellant.

APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Nathaniel M. Gorton, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Barron, Chief Judge, Lynch and Lipez, Circuit Judges.

Joshua C. Sharp, with whom Brian T. Kelly, Lauren A. Maynard, and Nixon Peabody LLP were on brief, for appellant Abdelaziz. Noel J. Francisco, with whom Yaakov M. Roth, Marco P. Basile, Harry S. Graver, Jones Day, Michael Kendall, Lauren M. Papenhausen, White & Case LLP, Andrew E. Tomback, and McLaughlin & Stern, LLP, were on brief, for appellant Wilson. Elliott M. Davis, Kateland R. Jackson, Scott A. Chesin, and Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. on brief for Former United States Attorneys, amici curiae. Michael J. Iacopino, Brennan Lenehan Iacopino & Hickey, Steven F. Molo, Leonid Grinberg, Justin V. Shur, Kenneth E. Notter III, and MoloLamken LLP on brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, amici curiae. Robert T. Smith, Mary Fleming, Timothy H. Gray, and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP on brief for Law Professors, amici curiae. Alexia R. De Vincentis, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Rachael S. Rollins, United States Attorney, and Donald C. Lockhart, Ian J. Stearns, Stephen E. Frank, Leslie A. Wright, and Kristen A. Kearney, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on brief, for appellee.

May 10, 2023 LYNCH, Circuit Judge. The convictions underlying this appeal arise from a government criminal prosecution of alleged misconduct related to college admissions. The government alleged that Rick Singer -- a college admissions consultant -- and his clients engaged in various forms of bribery and fraud to help secure those clients' children's admission to competitive universities. Singer, who pleaded guilty in a separate case to multiple charges1 and cooperated with the government's investigation, is not a defendant here, and his culpability is well established.

The defendants-appellants in this case are two parents, Gamal Abdelaziz and John Wilson, who hired Singer. Both men agreed with Singer to make payments purportedly to university accounts in exchange for university employees' securing their children's admission as athletic recruits -- a path to admission Singer referred to as the "side door."2 Their defense at trial and on appeal is that they believed Singer's services and the side door to be legitimate and that they acted in good faith.

1 Singer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering, see 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d); conspiracy to commit money laundering, see id. § 1956(h); obstruction of justice, see id. § 1512(c)(2); and conspiracy to defraud the United States, see id. § 371. 2 Singer contrasted this side door with the "front door" (admission on merit) and the "back door" (admission through large "institutional advancement" donations).

- 3 - The government charged Abdelaziz and Wilson with multiple offenses based on their work with Singer. It alleged that both defendants had participated in an overarching conspiracy not only with Singer but also with other Singer clients to corruptly influence university employees throug