Former Head Coach of Women’s Soccer at Yale University Sentenced in College Admissions Case

BOSTON – The former Yale University women’s soccer coach was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for accepting bribes to facilitate the admission of students to Yale as purported athletic recruits. 

Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith, 54, of Madison, Conn., was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to five months in prison and one year of supervised release. Meredith was also ordered to pay a $19,000 fine and forfeiture of $557,774. This sentence was above the government’s recommendation of a non-incarceratory sentence. In March 2019, Meredith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud and one count of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud.

From 1995 through November 2018, Meredith was employed as the head women’s soccer coach at Yale University. Beginning in April 2015, Meredith conspired with William “Rick” Singer to falsely designate the children of Singer’s clients as soccer recruits in exchange for bribes. Between 2015 and 2018, Meredith accepted a total of $860,000 from Singer in exchange for purporting to recruit the children of Singer’s clients to the Yale soccer team, or attempting to facilitate their admission to Yale by other means. In addition, separate and apart from his arrangement with Singer, Meredith agreed to accept a bribe of approximately $450,000 directly from a parent in exchange for designating his daughter as a soccer recruit to secure her admission to Yale.

Singer previously pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston; and Terry Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General Eastern Regional Office made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen E. Frank, Leslie A. Wright, Kristen A. Kearney and Ian J. Stearns of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.