Son Whose Dad Paid $400K in Admissions Scam Sues School

Los Angeles executive Stephen Semprevivo pleaded guilty last week in the college admissions scam, admitting he paid $400,000 to the leader of the bribery scheme in an effort to get his son, Adam, into Georgetown. Now Adam is suing the Washington DC university, where he just finished his junior year, USA Today reports. Adam Semprevivo's lawyer tells the Daily Beast Georgetown notified the rising senior on Wednesday that he would be expelled. Per the lawsuit, the university is also considering nullifying his earned academic credits. The suit says doing so would deprive Semprevivo of due process and violate 10 of the procedures outlined in Georgetown's honor system, including appointing an investigations officer, making a written report on the alleged violation, organizing a hearing board, and allowing the student the right to appeal evidence.

Semprevivo says he had no knowledge of his father's payment, a portion of which allegedly went to then-tennis coach Gordon Ernst, who allegedly fraudulently designated the younger Semprevivo as a Georgetown tennis recruit. Per the lawsuit, Georgetown started investigating Ernst as early as 2017, yet despite knowing about the alleged bribes as well as his connection to Semprevivo's admission, it continued allowing Semprevivo to pay tuition and take classes. Semprevivo's lawyer says Adam offered last month to withdraw from Georgetown as long as the university agreed not to expel him or nullify his credits; on Tuesday, the university's legal counsel said it would not agree to that, per the lawsuit. Semprevivo is the first student to sue a school in relation to the admissions scandal, the Los Angeles Times reports. Georgetown has not commented on the suit. (More college admissions bribery scandal stories.)