College Admissions Scandal Mastermind Rick Singer Returns to College Consulting After Release from Prison

Mar. 15, 2025

Rick Singer in 2019.Photo:AP Photo/Steven Senne

AP Photo/Steven Senne

William “Rick” Singer, the man who orchestratedthe 2019 college admissions scandal, is continuing to advise clients from a California halfway house, according to multiple outlets includingABC NewsandThe Wall Street Journal.

The former college admissions consultant, 64, was convicted in January 2023 for his involvement in the “Operation Varsity Blues" scandal. He facilitated bribes between parents and universities in exchange for their children’s enrollment and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and one count of honest services wire and mail fraud. Singer was thensentenced to three and a half years in prison.

He spent 16 months in a Pensacola, Fla. federal prison. In August 2024, Singer was released to a halfway house in Los Angeles, per theWall Street Journal.

“Listen, I took advantage of it and you make the best of where you are,” Singer toldWSJ.

While in prison, a young man sent Singer his high school transcript and a list of his credentials, asking Singer for help with his college application, ABC News reported. Singer obliged and replied with a few tips. The student was accepted to his top school in March, Singer told the outlet.

William “Rick” Singer on March 12, 2019 in Boston.Scott Eisen/Getty

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Before creating the new venture, Singer said families still wanted to work with him, even though the prosecution made him shut down his previous business. “I’m like, that’s B.S. People are gonna still wanna work with me,” he toldWSJ. As a result, he worked with families for free as he waited for his sentencing, while in prison and now in the halfway house.

Singer’s new business comes five years after U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Andrew Lelling announced the charges against Singer and over 50 others, including college coaches, testing administrators and actressesFelicity HuffmanandLori Loughlin.

Singer told ABC News that his consulting changed around 2011 when his “side door” scheme with one student soon grew and universities' presidents and coaches reached out to him. (The “side door” references Singer using his connections at top universities and developing fake athletic scholarships for applicants in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars, perHarper’s Bazaar.)

He also paid people to take the ACT and SAT on behalf of his clients. Additionally, parents funneled payments through Singer’s sham charity, the Key Worldwide Foundation, for them to take tax write-offs.

Rick Singer on January 4, 2023 in Boston.Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald

Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald

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“It was wrong, and I did it anyways,” Singer said, per ABC News. “What’s 10, 12, 13 kids who are good students, quality people, and this one score may screw them out of an opportunity to go to a decent school? I rationalized that to myself.”

“I probably rationalized a hell of a lot…and made it like it was not that big a deal,” he confessed to theWSJ. “But when you look at it in context, it was wrong. And I know it was wrong.” Despite that, he told ABC News he believed the conspiracy was a “victimless crime.”

source: people.com