USC fired senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and legendary water polo coach Jovan Vavic after they were indicted by federal prosecutors earlier Tuesday in a nationwide college admissions bribery case.

Heinel and Vavic were among four people with ties to USC’s athletic department, including former women’s soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin and former assistant women’s soccer coach Laura Janke, implicated in the wide-ranging scandal. They were charged with racketeering.

The alleged scheme was aimed at facilitating the admission of students into the university as recruited athletes, though many of them had falsified athletic credentials. Entrance requirements are made lower for prospective college athletes.

The indictments were unsealed Tuesday morning in federal court in Boston and engulfed coaches from other highly selective universities, including Georgetown, Stanford and Yale. UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo was also indicted.

A statement from USC in response to the indictments read, “USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation.”

The school said it would conduct an internal investigation.

“USC is in the process of identifying any funds received by the university in connection with this alleged scheme,” the statement added. “Additionally, the university is reviewing its admissions processes broadly to ensure that such actions do not occur going forward.”

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According to the indictment, Heinel received more than $1.3 million in bribe payments to fabricate the athletic credentials of more than two dozen students seeking admission to USC between 2014 and 2018.

In one instance in December 2017, Heinel received $50,000 from the parents of a student recruited to the Trojans’ women’s crew team with no crew experience. The same parents also donated $200,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation, a charity in Newport Beach set up by William Rick Singer who was part of the scheme, according to prosecutors.

That student and her older sister, who was admitted under similar circumstances earlier in 2017, are the daughters of fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and actress Lori Loughlin. They, along with actress Felicity Huffman, were among several wealthy parents indicted for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for allegedly attempting to get their kids admitted to the universities under false athletic pretenses.

Heinel is also the senior women’s administrator at the university and one of the highest-ranking members of the athletic department below Athletic Director Lynn Swann and Steve Lopes, the chief operating officer.

The allegations spanned both the tenure of Swann, who was hired in 2016, and Pat Haden, his predecessor who was the athletic director from 2010 to 2016.

It marked another black eye for an athletic department that has been rife with scandal in recent years.

Former men’s basketball assistant coach Tony Bland was fired after he was indicted by federal investigators two years ago for his involvement in the college basketball bribery and corruption scandal. Bland, who was ultimately fired by USC, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit bribery for taking a $4,100 in exchange for steering players to a sports agency.

Vavic was the Trojans’ most high-profile coach implicated in the latest scandal.

The indictment alleged Vavic received bribe payments that totaled $250,000 in exchange for designating two students as recruits for the water polo team, assisting with their admission to the school.

Vavic has led both the men’s and women’s water polo teams to a combined 16 national championships during his tenure, the most team titles of any USC head coach, and was a 15-time national coach of the year. He first arrived at USC as an assistant men’s water polo coach in 1992, taking over as co-head coach in 1995, and later coached the women’s program following its inception in 1999.

Vavic led both the men’s and women’s teams to NCAA titles last year, and the women’s team was off to a 19-0 start this spring. It was to be in Honolulu this week to face Hawaii on Saturday. Following Vavic’s dismissal, Casey Moon was named the interim women’s water polo coach and Marko Pintaric the interim men’s water polo coach.

The NCAA said Tuesday it was reviewing the allegations to determine if possible NCAA rules violations were also committed.

“The charges brought forth today are troubling and should be a concern for all of higher education,” an NCAA statement read.

The involvement of Khosroshahin, the former women’s soccer coach, and Janke, an assistant, came after they received $350,000 for their private soccer club in exchange for designating four students as recruits.

Khosroshahin coached the Trojans from 2007 to 2013, guiding the Trojans to the NCAA title in his first season. He went 82-53-15 in seven seasons before he and his staff, including Janke, were terminated Nov. 8, 2013.

According to his LinkedIn account, Khosroshahin is the owner of the Newport Futbol Club of the United Premier Soccer League. Last year, he was brought on as a technical adviser for United Women’s Soccer’s Santa Clarita Blue Heat.

Janke is listed as the Physical Education Department Chair & Educator for the Geffen Academy at UCLA.

The schemes to admit the regular students, who lacked sufficient grades and standardized test scores needed for admission, was layered and often involved Heinel, who held unique influence at the university.

In April 2016, Giannulli and Laughlin expressed concerns about their older daughter’s “academic qualifications” for USC after meeting with a college counselor, as detailed in a 204-page federal complaint

But Heinel presented their daughter as a prospective member of USC’s women’s crew team in a meeting with the university’s subcommittee for athletic admissions later that fall.

The daughter posed for a photo on an ergometer, a rowing machine, as part of an elaborate effort to demonstrate her participation in the sport despite no experience.

Giannulli sent Heinel $50,000 days later, and she was admitted.

The following year, Giannulli and Laughlin made a similar effort for their younger daughters. In this instance, they presented her as a crew coxswain for the L.A. Marina Club team and also had a photo taken of her on an ergometer.

In exchange for her admittance, Giannulli again sent Heinel $50,000. He also made donations of $200,000 to Singer’s non-profit, which helped build the admissions profiles and facilitated payments to Heinel and USC as part of the scam.

Singer characterized Heinel as the liaison to the admissions department for all varsity sports.

“Everybody has to go through her,” Singer said last August on a phone call intercepted by the FBI.

Heinel usually presented the prospective students, with falsified athletic credentials, to the admissions subcommittee.

In 2017, Marci Palatella, a liquor distributor in Kentucky, sought admission for his son.

A profile was made for Palatella’s son that included fake accomplishments as a football player, according to court documents, “that falsely described him, among other things, as an active player on his high school football team as a member of the ‘defensive line’ and a ‘long snapper’ and as a member of several local and statewide championship teams between 2015 and 2017.”

The profile was presented by Heinel to the admissions subcommittee in November of that year.

The son received a conditional acceptance letter days later, noting he had the “potential to make a significant contribution to the intercollegiate athletic program as well as to the academic life of the university.”

Palatella paid Heinel $100,000.

In another instance, Singer helped the son of William McGlashan, a Bay Area private equity executive, gain admittance into the school by posing as a football player, even though he came from a high school school that did not field a football team, according to court documents.

“I’m gonna make him a kicker/punter and they’re gonna walk him through with football,” Singer said in an intercepted voicemail last August, “and I’ll get a picture and figure out how to Photoshop and stuff, so it looks like it and the guy who runs the biggest kicking camp is a good friend, so we’ll put a bunch of stuff about that on his profile.”

In a following phone conversation, Singer said the son’s chances of admission would jump 90 percent.

Federal authorities alleged Heinel sought to cover for the athletes once they arrived on campus. When questioned by the admissions department why a student was not on the women’s basketball team, Heinel told them that she had suffered an injury and was to be out for six to eight months.

Former USC men’s volleyball coach Bill Ferguson was also indicated as part of the case Tuesday, though the allegations concerned his tenure at Wake Forest.

Ferguson, the women’s volleyball coach for the Demon Deacons, was put on administrative leave.