William “Rick” Bio – William “Rick” Wiki
William “Rick” Singer, the man who orchestrated a massive national college admissions scam, has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
AGE:
William “Rick” is 62 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
The singer ran a decade-long scheme to help high school students fake their way into elite colleges and universities like Yale, USC, and Georgetown. The scam unraveled thanks, in part, to the government’s Operation Varsity Blues, leading to charges against 50-plus co-conspirators, including celebrity parents like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
Singer orchestrated the scheme using two college prep businesses he operated: Key Worldwide Foundation and The Edge College & Career Network. Through his businesses, he helped clients gain admission to colleges through deceitful methods like paying off test proctors and bribing college administrators and athletic coaches, a sentencing memo obtained by PEOPLE states.
“We help the wealthiest families in the U.S. get their kids in school,” Singer was once heard boasting on a client call recorded by the FBI. “They want guarantees, they want this thing done.”
As part of his scheme, Singer raked in more than $25 million from his clients, while also paying bribes of more than $7 million, according to the memo.
The memo requested that Singer serve 72 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, and asked that he be forced to pay restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $10,668,841.
Of the 50-plus parents, coaches, and more who participated in Singer’s fraud, more than a third of them received three months or less in prison. Singer, however, wanted the judge to let him go with little to zero prison time.
He learned his fate Wednesday at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, a little less than four years after federal authorities handed down an indictment in the case in March 2019.
Singer, 62, began his career as a high school basketball coach before pivoting to college counseling and opening two companies in 1992 and 2004. Through those businesses, he helped his clients’ children cheat their way into Ivy League and other elite universities.
Loughlin, 55, of Full House fame, was among Singer’s high-profile clients. She confessed to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and one count of honest services wire and mail fraud.
The couple paid $500,000 to Singer and Key Worldwide Foundation to falsely designate their daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli, 20, and Isabella Rose Giannulli, 21, as recruits to the University of Southern California crew team — although neither daughter ever participated in the sport.
Loughlin received a two-month federal prison sentence after both she and Giannulli agreed to a plea deal. She also had to pay a $150,000 fine and complete 150 hours of community service.
Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman also did time for her participation in the scheme. Huffman pleaded guilty to paying the disgraced admissions consultant $15,000 to have a proctor change her daughter Sophia’s answers after taking the SAT.
Huffman served 11 days of her 14-day prison sentence. She was also sentenced to 250 hours of community service and was on supervised release for one year.