Who is college admissions scandal mastermind William 'Rick' Singer?
Singer used charitable foundation to funnel bribe money from parents to colleges
William “Rick” Singer is known as the mastermind behind the sweeping college admissions scandal, which implicated more than 50 wealthy and high-powered parents, 25 of whom have since pleaded guilty to related offenses.
The scheme came to light in March 2019 and he was charged with multiple offenses, including racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud, court papers show. He later pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government’s investigation.
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Singer was in the business of helping high school students get into some of the country’s top colleges for 25 years. During that time, he gained a reputation as a master salesman who got results, but also someone who came across as devious and way too slick, say some of those who knew him professionally.
William "Rick" Singer, founder of the Edge College & Career Network, exits federal court in Boston after he pleaded guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal on March 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Years before going into the consulting business, Singer was the boys’ basketball coach at Encina High School in Sacramento but got fired in 1988, according to The Sacramento Bee. In the early ’90s, he was an assistant coach for Sacramento State’s men’s basketball team, the Bee reported.
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In 1992, Singer started his first admissions-consulting business in Sacramento, Future Stars College and Career Counseling. According to prosecutors, he started another such business in 2007, Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key. Around 2012, he moved to the affluent Southern California community of Newport Beach and created The Key Worldwide Foundation, a purported charity granted tax-exempt status by the IRS in 2013.
Federal prosecutors said he used the foundation to funnel bribe money from parents to colleges. Parents made big “donations” to the charity, and Singer disguised the payments as charitable contributions so that his clients could deduct them on their income taxes.
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William Rick Singer, left, walks into the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 12, 2019. (Getty Images)
Court papers pertaining to his arrest show Singer was accused of:
- “facilitating cheating on the SAT and ACT exams in exchange for bribes"
- “designating applicants as purported recruits for competitive college athletic teams, without regard for the applicants' athletic abilities, in exchange for bribes"
- “concealing the nature and source of the bribe payments by funneling payments through the KWF charitable accounts"
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As part of his test-fixing scheme, parents paid Singer between $15,000 and $75,000 to have their kids test scores changed, or to have someone take the test in their children’s place, according to court records.
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And for the “student-athlete recruitment scam,” Singer was collectively paid an estimated $25 million by parents “to bribe coaches and university administrators to designate the clients' children as recruited athletes… thereby facilitating the children's admission to the Universities.”
Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and one as much as $6.5 million, prosecutors said.
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Schools involved in the scheme include Yale University, Georgetown University, the University of Southern California and Stanford University, court papers show.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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