William 'Rick' Singer, mastermind behind admissions scandal, called his business a 'side door' into college
It has been a bit over a year since celebs like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, along with many college officials and coaches, were busted in a massive nationwide college admissions scandal. A CNBC documentary 'American Greed: Biggest Cons' first episode looks into the college admissions scandal. Here is taking a look at the case, which shocked the nation, and the man behind it all, William 'Rick' Singer.
College Admissions Scandal
The scandal had exploded last year in March when wealthy families across the country were caught making widespread efforts to get their children enrolled to top US colleges by changing and fabricating their SAT scores, lying about their athletic skills and feigning deformities. Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among the many people charged with crimes in association with the scandal. They had reportedly made payments to admissions consultant William 'Rick' Singer and his nonprofit organization, which fabricated the documents needed.
It has been reported that Lori Loughlin had paid up to $500,000 as bribes to get her daughters put on USC's crew team. Singer had pleaded guilty in Boston federal court in March to running the largest college admissions scam in the history of the country. He had admitted to accepting around $25 million in bribes to exploit the admissions process, CNBC reveals. He himself had described his process as a "side door" into college.
Rick Singer, The Mastermind
Prosecutors revealed that the entire scheme had been the work of William 'Rick' Singer, who called himself a college-prep professional who's charity was at the center of the scandal. Singer had revealed that he had helped parents create fake documents that would allow students to be recruited as athletes despite the fact they may not have ever played the sport.
He had also helped students to cheat on their college entrance exams and would pay coaches and administrators to ignore the crime. According to an article by Sacbee, prosecutors said the parents had paid Singer as much as $75,000 to have fronts take the ACT and SAT college admissions test instead of their children. It was also reported that Singer's scam was executed via his company the Edge College & Career Network LLC, also called 'The Key', and a nonprofit called the Key Worldwide Foundation.
As per a filing with the Internal Revenue Service, the nonprofit foundation has a Sacramento address though the website had listed the address as Newport Beach. The website had read, "Over the past twenty years Rick Singer and his team have coached, counseled and mentored over 90,000 adults personally and professionally and guided high school and college students on the admission process to either attain an undergraduate or graduate degree in every field imaginable." He is yet to be sentenced but faces up to 65 years, CNN reports.
History of Rick Singer
Before Singer turned to college prep business, he had been fired as the boys' basketball coach for the Encina High School in 1988. It had been reported at the time that parents claimed that Singer had been abusive toward referees.
A friend of Singer, Ron McKenna who also coached with him said he had earlier admired the way Singer could coach and recruit people. In light of the college admissions scandal, McKenna questioned who his friend really was. He told the Sacbee, "I can’t believe it. It’s not the Rick Singer I know. We started coaching together at Sac State in 1988 and traveled a lot together. We became good friends. It’s a total stunner. I remember him as a workaholic. He never did anything halfway. He did it 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
In 1990, he had started the Future Stars group in Sacramento which was an independent counseling service to help students get into good colleges. He would also charge parents a fee of around $1,200 to help them and their children understand college entrance exams. McKenna revealed that Singer especially liked coaching.
Early Life
Rick Singer grew up in Lincolnwood, Chicago, and was the older of two siblings. As a child, he was known to be very competitive. In 1985, he wanted to coach basketball and had what seemed to be a good resume. As it turns out, his resume was a fake, USA Today reports. Singer had said he was a four-sport standout at Texas A&M University but had actually been an average player in two sports in a much smaller school.
He said he coached McArthur High School for two years but it had been just one. He also had not been the head coach but the assistant coach.
A columnist Jeff Caraska recalls that Singer had a small side business in 1988. "He started this service of trying to get kids scholarships. He was selling the idea to parents that 'I can get your kid's name out there and increase their chances of getting a Division I or Division II scholarship.' "He'd help put together profiles of student-athletes and even take video that he could send to college coaches and recruiters."
"No one was doing that back then, at least around here. And parents were pretty excited about it."