California Man Pleads Guilty to Filing False Return

California Parent Pleads Guilty in College Admissions Case

July 9, 2021

BOSTON — A California parent pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to a tax offense in connection with his involvement in the college admissions case.

Homayoun Zadeh, 60, an associate professor of dentistry at the University of Southern California (USC), pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for Nov. 10, 2021. Zadeh was charged in March 2019.

Zadeh agreed with William “Rick” Singer to pay $100,000 to facilitate the admission of Zadeh's daughter to USC. Zadeh made installment payments toward that total to Singer's purported charitable foundation, the Key Worldwide Foundation, and deducted the payments from his taxes as a purported gift to charity, despite knowing that they were not legitimate charitable contributions, but were made in exchange for facilitating his daughter's admission to USC.

Singer has previously pleaded guilty for his role in the college admissions scheme.

Zadeh is the 31^st parent to plead guilty in the case. Under the terms of Zadeh's plea agreement, the parties have agreed to a sentence, subject to the Court's approval, of six weeks in prison, one year of supervised release with 250 hours of community service and a fine of $20,000.

Case information, including the status of each defendant, charging documents, and plea agreements are available here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme.

The charge of filing a false tax return provides for a sentence of up three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Mark Deckett, Resident Agent in Charge of the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General made the announcement today.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin D. O'Connell, Leslie A. Wright, Kristen A. Kearney, Ian J. Stearns, Karin M. Bell and Stephen E. Frank of Mendell's Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Updated July 9, 2021