Laura Janke, Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering, California 2023

Laura Janke, 36, of North Hollywood, Calif., copped to her role in a brazen college admissions scam that turned elite university sports programs into backdoors for the wealthy and unqualified. Today in Boston federal court, Janke pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering, admitting she helped rig the system to funnel unqualified applicants into top-tier schools under false athletic pretenses.

As a former assistant coach for the University of Southern California women’s soccer team, Janke used her position to fabricate athletic profiles that portrayed applicants as elite high school athletes—players who, in reality, had little to no competitive experience. These falsified dossiers were then funneled through Rick Singer’s network, the mastermind behind the nationwide bribery scheme, to inflate applicants’ chances of admission under athletic recruitment quotas.

In exchange for her cooperation in the fraud, Singer directed payments to a private soccer club controlled by Janke and another defendant. The money, disguised as legitimate coaching fees, was part of a broader pay-to-play scheme that corrupted the admissions process at schools like USC, Yale, and Georgetown. The bribes allowed wealthy families to buy their children’s way into elite institutions, while honest applicants were left in the dust.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani set sentencing for October 17, 2019, at 2:30 p.m. The racketeering conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss—whichever is greater—plus restitution. Under her plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence at the low end of the federal guidelines, along with one year of supervised release, a fine, restitution, and forfeiture.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric S. Rosen, Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie A. Wright, and Kristen A. Kearney of the Securities and Financial Fraud Unit. The probe was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the FBI’s Boston Field Division under Special Agent in Charge Joseph R. Bonavolonta, and IRS Criminal Investigations, headed by Kristina O’Connell.

Janke is now cooperating with federal investigators as the fallout from the college admissions scandal continues. While she seeks leniency, the damage to institutional integrity at America’s top universities lingers. The full scope of the scheme—including all defendants and charging documents—is available on the Department of Justice website. For now, the remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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