Rick Singer, the mastermind of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, appeared unapologetic as he spoke for the first time since he was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars.
The 64-year-old lives in a halfway house in Los Angeles, where he is serving the remainder of his sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to racketeering, money laundering and obstruction charges.
He told Fox News Thursday that he is “hiding in plain sight,” able to leave his way home most days to work at a restaurant group.
“Now, someone may recognize me and I can hear people talking, but no one cares,” Singer said as he recalled his crimes.
He went on to admit that he is guilty of “everything” he was accused of, but stated that he is not the only one gaming the college admissions system.
Rick Singer, the mastermind of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, appeared unapologetic as he spoke for the first time since he was sentenced to three and a half years.
Singer was accused of accepting bribes totaling more than $25 million from desperate parents who wanted their children into some of the best schools in the country.
Singer was accused of accepting bribes totaling more than $25 million from desperate parents, including celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, who wanted their children to get into some of the best schools in the country.
He then paid entrance exam administrators or proctors to inflate students’ test scores and bribed coaches to designate applicants as recruits for sports they sometimes didn’t even play, seeking to increase their chances of getting into college. school.
Singer even vouched for fake athletes, like Loughlin’s two daughters.
But others were not even aware of their parents’ involvement in their college admission: They took their SAT exam at places where the test administrator or proctor was on Singer’s payroll.
Once they had completed their answers, the supervisor would change them to make sure they were correct.
“He was the architect and mastermind of a criminal enterprise that massively corrupted the integrity of the college admissions process – which already favors those with wealth and privilege – to a degree never before seen in this country,” prosecutors wrote in documents judicial.
At least 50 people have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the college admissions scandal as of October 2023, including the Full House star, who pleaded guilty and served nearly two months behind bars, and Huffman, who was sentenced to 14 days.
Singer even vouched for fake athletes, like Loughlin’s two daughters.
The Full House star who pleaded guilty and served almost two months behind bars.
Singer spent 16 months in a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, and said he became friends with some of the other inmates, many of whom he said were locked up for fraudulent COVID-era PPE claims.
He said he has rarely eaten meals in prison and instead tried to find healthy foods to create his own meals.
The convict has since admitted to his crimes.
“Everything the FBI, the federal prosecutor, and everyone says I did?” I did it,’ he admitted.
He went on to “apologize profusely to all the families I’ve hurt, to all the kids I’ve hurt, to the administrators I’ve hurt, to my own family,” and said he did the most damage to the reputation of the people.
Singer also said he considers his test-cheating efforts to be the most brazen, describing how his scheme began with a student in Vancouver who was smart but a bad test taker.
He said he then paid Mark Riddell, who would later become one of his main accomplices, $10,000 to falsify the boy’s final test score.
Singer did not go into detail about how he falsified the test results, but said it was a fake ID and described it as a satisfying, movie-like heist that paved the way for his future misdeeds.
“What I can tell you with certainty is that what I did that was illegal was cheating on exams,” he said.
Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in jail for bribing Singer
However, Singer said he just found a third way to get students into college.
He stated that there are three ways students can be admitted to university: through a “front door” with legitimate merits and qualifications, through a “back door”, when a family publicly donates huge amounts of money or to through its “side door.” ‘
“This has been going on for hundreds of years, I’m not smart enough to invent this process,” Singer said, arguing that his “side door” deals were only attacked because they were done in private and he questioned why “the back door” “‘Donations made in public are more acceptable.
And when asked if he thinks the college admissions system can still be gamed, and is still being gamed today, he responded: “Every day.”
Singer also insisted that he never took a spot away from a deserving student, instead stating that his plan simply exposed a budgetary tactic that higher education institutions rely on: blocking certain “spots” on sports teams and within departments. for ordinary applicants and reserve them for Large donors willing to pay for the students’ admission.
“In 90 percent of the cases, coaches call me every year and say, ‘I have a spot available, I need to raise this amount of money… Find me a family,'” he said, arguing that college admissions officers university has not faced the same scrutiny as him.
“The media didn’t notice that universities are my partners in this,” Singer said. “It takes two games to play.”
Singer recounted how he paid Mark Riddell, who would later become one of his main accomplices, $10,000 to falsify the final test score of a Vancouver boy.
At the same time, Singer insisted that he also ran a legitimate college coaching business that he claims helped hundreds of teenagers get into college.
He said business moguls and Hollywood celebrities used his legitimate college counseling for their children, claiming that he has built such a revered name in the admissions world that parents still approach him for guidance, and They did it even during his trial.
‘I walked out of court, out of court, and showed my phone to my lawyer. There are 93 text messages: “Are you still coming next week?”
Singer spent 16 months in a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, but is now serving time in a halfway house.
Looking to the future, Singer said he wants to revolutionize college admissions and education with his new company called Future ID Stars, which he said will eliminate the need to go to college for high school students across the country by identifying their IQ, skills and competitive advantage and place them. directly into the workforce.
‘We have this notion that everyone needs to go to college, that it’s the right place for everyone, and that you have to go to certain schools to be successful. And that is not the truth according to the tens of thousands of children I have worked with,” he said.
But he promised that everything he does in the future will be done legally with attorney review, something he said he wishes he had done from the beginning.