David Sidoo

Sidoo is of Indian-Canadian descent and grew up in New Westminster, B.C., the son of a sawmill-working immigrant father from Punjab in northern India and a stay-at-home mother.[3] From 1978-1982, he attended the University of British Columbia on a football scholarship. At UBC, he played for the school's team, the Thunderbirds.[4]

After graduating university, Sidoo was drafted into the Canadian Football League, becoming the first Indian-Canadian to have made the draft for professional Canadian football.[5] He played professional football for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions until 1988.[6]

After retiring from football, Sidoo started working in the field of brokerage. Sidoo later was one of the founding members who sold an energy company, American Oil & Gas, to the Hess Corporation.[7][7] At the start of 2019, Sidoo was the CEO of Advantage Lithium, a mining company.[7]

In March 2019, Sidoo was named as one of the alleged parent perpetrators of the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. Multiple sources reported on allegations Sidoo had paid money to illegally aid his two sons in getting accepted into American colleges.[11][12]

As alleged in the FBI indictment, Sidoo paid $100,000 to have a test-taker impersonate his older son, so that the latter's SAT test scores were improved.[13] The scores were sent to Chapman University, which his son later attended.[14] According to the FBI, Sidoo paid an additional $100,000 to have his younger son's test taken in the same, fraudulent way.[11][14] CBC News later reported that Sidoo had also paid a test-taker to fake a high school exam on behalf of his son in 2012.[15] The affected scores were sent to Yale, Georgetown and the University of California, Berkeley, the latter of which his younger son eventually attended.[14] The FBI indictment noted that Sidoo had been in contact with other perpetrators of the college admission scandal in 2018, and in October of that year recorded a phone call in which Sidoo discussed obtaining a GMAT score for his older son, who intended to apply to business school.[16][17]

Sidoo pleaded not guilty before a federal court in Massachusetts on 15 March 2019.[18] In light of the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, Sidoo stepped down as the CEO of both Advantage Lithium and East West Petroleum in mid-March 2019.[19]

Sidoo pleaded guilty[20] to fraud in the aforementioned matter on March 13, 2020, asking for a sentence of 90 days in jail and a $250,000 (USD) fine. The sentencing hearing will take place on July 15, 2020. Sidoo has asked that his name be removed from the University of British Columbia football field.[21]

Sidoo's appointment to the Order of British Columbia in 2016[22] was rescinded on June 12, 2020.[23]