Former College of Staten Island swimming coach Oleg Soloviev has lost in a bid for arbitration against his former employer after his dismissal from the program in November, 2011.
An arbitrator has held up the termination in her decision this week, saying that the school has just cause for termination.
“The record evidence establishes (Soloviev) had a long tenure with the college and an established history of dedication to his duties and athletes,” Gaines said. “However, none of these factors can provide sufficient mitigating circumstances, given the magnitude of his dishonesty and misconduct in this case.”
The dishonesty and misconduct surrounds sanctions by the NCAA for several significant violations of the organization’s rules. Among the honors earned, and later stripped, from Soloviev’s 16-year tenure as the first varsity swim coach in school history was an NCAA Division III National Championship from Pavel Buyanov, the school’s first in any sport, that was rescinded as part of the punishment.
Soloviev was found by the NCAA to have arranged off-campus housing for four student athletes, including signing leases for two, allowing one to stay at his home, and providing statement of financial support for students to obtain visas, among other charges.
The school was also barred from competing at the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Championship meets.
In May of this year, Soloviev had a $25 million lawsuit against the school thrown out, having alleged that he was discriminated against both for being Russian and for being underpaid (details here).
The latest decision from the arbitrator came despite Soloviev’s claim that he did nothing wrong to warrant dismissal.
$25 million eh? Seems slightly excessive…