Scott Jacobson, the associate USC athletic director who departed from that position in January 2020 just weeks after USC was revealed as one of the primary venues where the then-raging college admissions scandal was playing out, has objected to a multitude of characterizations in a September 9 Sentinel article that depicted the degree to which the specter of that scandal had come to taint operations at Ontario International Airport and darkened the reputation of the airport authority’s board president, Ontario Councilman Alan Wapner.
In the same 2019-to-2020 timeframe as Jacobson left USC, senior associate athletic director Ron Orr, USC athletic department chief operating officer/chief financial officer Steve Lopes, USC soccer coaches Ali Khosroshahin and Laura Janke, athletic department administrator Donna Heinel and water polo coach Jovan Vavic also departed. This came on the heels of revelations of the abuse of discretion that occurred within the USC Athletic Department. One of those pertained to how actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli obtained for their daughters, Olivia Jade Gianulli and Isabella Gianulli, admission to USC by paying $500,000 in bribes to have them listed as members of the rowing team, though neither had ever previously participated in the sport. Likewise, Gamal Abdelaziz, a casino magnate, and Robert Zangrillo, a Miami developer, each paid the standard “fee” of $250,000 to get their daughters admitted into USC. In Abdelaziz’s daughter’s case, she was falsely represented as a recruit to the women’s basketball team. In that of Zangrillo’s daughter, arrangements to have someone else take her SAT tests and complete the admissions process for her were made.
Within three weeks of the announcement of Jacobson’s parting with USC, he was able to create an advertising/promotional company – Fuse Advancement – and obtain a $96,000 annual contract for it with the apparent assistance of Wapner and Atif Elkadi, who was then the assistant executive director of the Ontario International Airport Authority.
Both Wapner and Elkadi are USC alums as is Jacobson.
The Sentinel article related how the advent of Fuse Development as a contractor coincided, essentially, with the discontinuation of a ten-year contract that the airport authority had entered into in 2017 with a national corporation, Lamar Advertising, for both promoting the airport and posting or operating signs, billboards, electronic video and audio displays on the airport grounds, including within the terminal and its passageways and ramps. The Sentinel reported how by May 2021, Fuse Advancement had displaced Lamar, requiring that the airport authority buy out the then-remaining six years of its contract with Lamar, and the airport authority’s contract with Fuse Advancement was increased to $240,500 per year.
The Sentinel article noted that Wapner had been extended the extremely rare opportunity to travel aboard the USC Trojans’ football team plane to Austin, Texas for its September 15, 2018 game against Texas as well as with the team to South Bend, Indiana for its October 12, 2019 game against Notre Dame. The Sentinel attributed Wapner having been given this privilege because of his connection with Jacobson.
This week, on September 21, Michael E. Adler, an attorney and himself a USC graduate, wrote a letter to the Sentinel on behalf of Jacobson, demanding a retraction of elements of the September 9 article.
While the USC Newspaper Daily Trojan in January 2020 published an article representing the dismissals of Lopes, Orr and Jacobson as firings and relating those actions to the admission’s scandal and though similar accounts were published in or broadcast by the Los Angeles Times, CBS News, The Daily Mail, Breitbart, the San Diego Union-Tribune, KTLA, TMZ, Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, Reddit and Pro Sports Daily, Adler objected to the Sentinel stating that Jacobson was “caught up in” the college admissions scandal, in particular that relating to USC.
“It is correct that Mr. Jacobson parted ways with USC in February 2020,” Adler said. “However, it is incorrect that Mr. Jacobson was ‘Caught up in the scandal’. There were never any allegations by USC or federal investigators that Mr. Jacobson had anything to do with Varsity Blues. This may be verified by calling Dawn Kennedy, associate general counsel at the University of Southern California [at] 213-740-7922.”
Varsity Blues was the code name used by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the investigation and eventual prosecution of those criminally implicated in the college admissions scandal. The Sentinel article did not use the term Varsity Blues.
Adler cited a passage in the September 9 article that stated, “Aspiring students who were not academically or athletically qualified to legitimately attend USC but who had parents wealthy enough to have the university’s standards ignored on their behalf were not the only beneficiaries of Jacobson’s willingness to suspend USC’s protocol.”
Adler wrote, “There are no allegations by USC or federal investigators that Mr. Jacobson had anything to do with Varsity Blues. Jacobson never ‘suspend[ed] USC’s protocols.’”
Adler took issue with the portion of the September 9 Sentinel article that dwelled upon Wapner having traveled with the USC Football team to its games against Notre Dame and the University of Texas during the years Jacobson was associate athletic director.
Adler asserted, “Mr. Jacobson never arranged for any airport authority commissioner, including Mr. Wapner, to receive such alleged occasional travel. Any opportunity for commissioners for occasional travel to promote airport business was spelled out in the Ontario International Airport Authority’s publicly approved sponsorship agreement with Fox Sports Properties.”
Similarly, Adler found fault with a passage in the September 9 Sentinel article that read, “The arrangements for those flights were made by Jacobson, documents in the possession of the Sentinel show. Wapner flew with the team to Denver, Colorado for its October 2. 2021 game against Colorado. Wapner’s ability to fly with the team in 2020 and 2021, was a carryover of the rapport he had established with the USC athletic department through Jacobson.”
Adler wrote, “Mr. Jacobson never arranged for any Ontario International Airport Authority Commissioner, including Mr. Wapner to receive such occasional alleged travel. Any opportunity for Ontario International Airport Authority commissioners for occasional travel to promote airport business was spelled out in the Ontario International Airport Authority’s publicly approved sponsorship agreement with Fox Sports Properties. There was no ‘carryover of the rapport’ between Mr. Wapner and Mr. Jacobson. Mr. Jacobson only interacted with Mr. Wapner after the Ontario International Airport Authority partnered with Fox Sports to advertise and promote the airport through USC Athletics.”
Adler further found fault in the Sentinel article’s focus on the fashion in which the Ontario International Airport Authority had closed out its contractual relationship with Lamar Advertising, which was ultimately replaced by Fuse Advancement. He cited the passage, “In this way, what Wapner and Elkadi were contemplating was asking the other members of the board to abrogate the contract with Lamar, one which was not only raising Ontario International Airport’s profile on a notional basis but generating revenue for it at the same time, in favor of hiring Jacobson, an unproven entity whose only prior experience consisted of coordinating the scheduling and promotion of college athletic competitions.”
According to Adler, “Mr. Jacobson held various roles in his fifteen years at USC, including the Price School of Policy Planning and Development as the assistant director of admissions, director of Annual Giving, and director of alumni and constituent relations. In 2011, Mr. Jacobson was promoted to the role of assistant athletic director, where he coordinated fundraising activities for the Trojan Athletic Fund. In July 2013, Mr. Jacobson was promoted to associate athletic director, where he was responsible for the annual fund, major gifts, and constituency groups.”
Adler continued, “In the role of associate athletic director, Mr. Jacobson:
• Raised approximately $20 million annually for one of the largest collegiate athletics
programs in the nation;
• Worked closely with Athletic Director Lynn Swann on strategic initiatives for USC Athletics;
• Worked with the Trojan Clubs from all over the state, promoting USC Athletics and increasing financial support from USC alums;
• Created the Trojan Athletic Parents Association, an organization of student-athlete parents and university parents whose mission is to support USC Athletics and increase engagement between the university and student-athlete parents;
• Oversaw the USC women’s tennis program as the sports administrator;
• Played a significant role in raising $300 million for the renovation of the LA Memorial Coliseum; and
• Oversaw five full-time staff members as well as numerous student workers.
Additionally, Mr. Jacobson conceived the 1923 Club on the upper deck of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one or the most talked about clubs in College Athletics, and secur[ed] the most significant gift in USC history by a former female student-athlete.”
Adler further wrote, “Your statement that Mr. Jacobson’s ‘only prior experience consisted of coordinating the scheduling and promotion of college athletic competitions’ is defamatory, libelous, and incorrect. Furthermore, Mr. Jacobson had nothing to do with ‘coordinating the scheduling and promotion of college athletic competitions.’”
Despite the Sentinel’s reliance upon documentation taken directly from the Ontario International Airport Authority’s files indicating that as early as February 1, 2020, Wapner and Elkadi had arranged to provide Fuse Advancement – which had yet to be registered as company, corporation, limited liability company or in any other form with the State of California or the County of San Bernardino – with a $96,000 annual contract, Adler insisted that the airport authority did not contract with Fuse Advancement to provide advertising services until one month after the document in the possession of the Sentinel indicated. Adler cited this passage in the September 9 article: “Instead they [i.e., Wapner, Elkaldi, then-Ontario International Airport Authority Executive Director Mark Thorpe and the airport authority board] opted to enter into a contractual relationship with Jacobson, or rather an entity that Jacobson created. Of note is that even as Lamar was being shoved out the door, that entity – which was dubbed Fuse Advancement – had yet to come into existence. On February 1, 2021 (sic), the Ontario International Airport Authority entered into a $96,000 annual contract with Fuse Advancement, as it was identified in the contract.”
According to Adler, “The first contract between Fuse Advancement and Ontario International Airport Authority was ‘made and entered into as of March 1, 2020.’ Fuse Advancement, Inc., was filed with the California Secretary of State on February 18, 2020. For you to claim that ‘Fuse Advancement – had yet to come into existence,’ when the contract was signed almost two weeks after Fuse’s formation is both defamatory and libelous. In fact, before entering into the agreement with ONT, Fuse had to provide its EIN#, proof of insurance, Ontario business license, articles of incorporation, etc.”
Adler disputed the Sentinel’s straightforward and verbatim transcription of both the May 27, 2021 agenda item passed by the Ontario International Airport Authority Board of Directors on that date, as well as the information contained in the staff report relating to that item. He cited the sentence in the Sentinel’s September 9 article that states, “Subsequently, on May 27, 2021, the contract with Fuse Advancement was increased to $240,500 per year.”
Adler wrote, “The contract Fuse Advancement entered into with the Ontario International Airport Authority was for $185,000, with an incentive bonus of up to $55,000 for meeting gross revenue sales budgets. The maximum amount is $240,000.”
Another bone Adler sought to pick with the Sentinel consisted of his objection to the sentence in the September 9 article that read, “Wapner did not make any disclosure of the travel accommodations provided to him by USC and/or Jacobson when Jacobson was the associate athletic director, according to the City of Ontario.”
“Mr. Jacobson never provided travel accommodations for any Ontario International Airport Authority Commissioner,” Adler repeated. “This statement is both defamatory and libelous. Any occasional travel for Ontario International Airport Authority Commissioners to promote airport business was spelled out in the Ontario International Airport Authority’s publicly approved sponsorship agreement with Fox Sports Properties, which Mr. Jacobson has nothing to do with.”
Adler called out this 88-word sentence in the September 9 article, “The termination of the Lamar contract in favor of the arrangement with Fuse Advancement went unremarked by the public for well over a year but has now become an issue of controversy with disclosures about Wapner having been able to obtain the virtually unheard-of privilege of traveling with the USC Football Team on the team plane to several of its away games and the apparent quid pro quo of Wapner arranging for Fuse Advancement’s contract in the aftermath of Jacobson’s downfall as a consequence of the Admissions Scandal.”
Adler again insisted that Wapner’s traveling to the Trojans’ away football games on the team plane did not come courtesy of Jacobson while the latter was serving as USC’s assistant and/or associate athletic director.
“Mr. Jacobson never provided travel accommodations for any Ontario International Airport Authority commissioner, including Mr. Wapner, so therefore, there was no ‘quid pro quo.’ Additionally, there were never any allegations by USC or federal investigators that Mr. Jacobson had anything to do with Varsity Blues,” Adler wrote.
The Sentinel should have dug deeper to determine why the airport authority had extended a contract to Fuse Advancement when its inquiry with Wapner in that regard produced no response from the councilman/airport commission board president, Adler maintains.
He cited a sentence in the September 9 article that reads, “Wapner further sidestepped direct questions into what about Fuse Advancement and its potential justified entering into a contract with it to the exclusion of Lamar Advertising, why the airport authority terminated the contract with Lamar to take up with Fuse Advancement and whether he could produce empirical data to demonstrate that Ontario International Airport and the Ontario International Airport Authority have been better served by Fuse Advancement than by Lamar Advertising.”
Adler wrote, “According to a press release from the Ontario International Airport Authority, dated August 30, 2022, ‘Annual revenues generated by in-house advertising and partnership programs at Ontario International Airport doubled to $1.6 million in the past 18 months, and the trend is expected to continue as demand for air travel in Southern California surges.’”
Adler found fault with the Sentinel’s description of the sentiment shared by some of Wapner’s constituents, who believe he militated on behalf of Jacobson and Fuse Advancement not because he truly believed that the contract with Jacobson’s company would benefit the airport but because he understood Jacobson was willing to take part in the pay-to-play environment Wapner as a politician in Ontario inhabits. Jacobson’s lawyer referenced the following passage: “According to them, Wapner militated on behalf of Fuse Advancement not on the basis of that company’s superior service but simply because of his relationship with Jacobson. Viewed in this frame of reference, the perquisites that were provided to Wapner by Jacobson when he was acting in his capacity as assistant athletic director at USC – in particular the extension of the privilege of flying on the team plane to several away games over the last several years – constituted gifts that were not properly reported and which, in the light of the favorable treatment Wapner as president of the airport authority arranged for Fuse Advancement, stand as quid pro quos – bribes in plain terms.”
Jacobson wrote, “Mr. Jacobson never provided ‘perquisites’ to any Ontario International Airport Authority commissioner, including Mr. Wapner, when he was acting in his capacity as assistant athletic director at USC. Again, any occasional tickets for Ontario International Airport Authority commissioners to promote airport business were through the well-documented publicly approved partnership with USC Athletics via Fox Sports Properties. There were no ‘quid pro quos – bribes’ between Mr. Wapner and Fuse Advancement and/or Mr. Jacobson.”
Adler contradicted characterizations of Jacobson made by multiple employees with the airport authority and the City of Ontario as embodied in the sentence that appeared in the September 9 Sentinel article, “Jacobson has assumed the role as the airport’s chief publicist, promoter and head of communications.”
“Jacobson,” Adler wrote, “has never ‘assumed the role as the airport ‘s chief publicist, promoter and head of communications.’”
-Mark Gutglueck