Jerome Allen, a Boston Celtics assistant coach who previously served as the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, has been ensnared in a criminal case alleging that he took bribes from a businessman who wanted to help his son gain admission to the Ivy League school, according to a Bloomberg report published on Friday citing a person familiar with the matter.
Allen, a star player at the university who later coached the program for six seasons, was not identified in the indictment filed against the businessman on Thursday in Miami, but the court documents include descriptions of a Philadelphia school and a timeframe that corresponds to Allen’s tenure with the Quakers.
Prosecutors allege the businessman, Philip Esformes of Miami Beach, gave ‘Coach 2’ more than $74,000 in cash, a recruiting trip to Miami and a separate ride on a private jet in 2013 and 2014. Esformes is charged with health-care fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and bribery.
The filing, according to the Bloomberg report, says the bribes were intended to help Esformes’s son, Morris, then a high school basketball player at Miami’s Hebrew Academy, gain admission to Penn.
Allen didn’t immediately comment when contacted through the Celtics.
