Who is and how William Singer operated, the man behind the billion dollar bribery scheme at the elite universities of the United States

Rich parents, including two Hollywood actresses, have been accused of pouring millionaire bribes to their children to allow them to enter prestigious universities in the United States. Actresses Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives"), 56, and Lori Loughlin ("Full House"), 54, are among the accused. But there is a man, William 'Rick & # 39; Singer, who planned everything and who, according to justice, received $ 25 million in bribes from parents between 2011 and February 2019.

Before the Court, Singer pleaded guilty to four counts: extortion conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, fraud plot in the United States and obstruction of justice.

Tanned and skinny, with graying hair and a blue coat, he heard federal prosecutor Eric Rosen review a long list of crimes., paying $ 2.7 million in bribes to a tennis coach at Georgetown University to lie to student ethnic groups to take advantage of quota programs. He admitted to doing these things and "a lot more". When the judge asked him if he knew that he was breaking the law, he answered yes.

Singer, 58, is often described as a "serial entrepreneur" who founded an online high school and was dedicated to "helping" students enter the universities of their dreams.. He did so in a misleading way, via a California-based company that he founded 25 years ago, called Edge College & Career Network, also known as Key.

According to the company's website, his goal was to help alleviate the anxiety of entering the university because he "had witnessed the stress that admissions to universities and colleges the process of sports recruitment could result in a family ".

He received $ 25 million in bribes from parents between 2011 and February 2019. Part of the payments to Singer, which raised up to $ 6.5 million to guarantee an admission. they were made at KWF, a charitable foundation created by him. It also allowed them to deduct taxes from their "charitable" contributions.

How did it work? Have almost all the admission system under your control. He corrupted the coaches so that they would accept the students from their teams. At other times, he created fake sports profiles for his clients' children, inventing sports exploits and falsifying photographs of young athletes.

The former coach of Yale's women's football team, Rudolph Meredith, for example, accepted $ 400,000 to receive a student who had never played football competitively, according to the report. indictment. For this service, the girl's family paid Singer $ 1.2 million.
In addition, he billed between $ 15,000 and $ 75,000 for correcting erroneous responses to college admissions exams for his clients' children or pretending to be a candidate.

Your company's website says that Singer "helps guide thousands of high school students in the process of admission to the university"in addition to advising 90,000 adults across the country. "We work with your son or daughter to identify their strengths, tap their potential, choose the right college, position themselves for admission, and set a curriculum and extracurricular experiences to lead a successful life." explains the page.

The website contains testimonials, many of which are only signed by their first names, singing the virtues of Singer. "I bet you're getting a lot of these types of emails, but there's a reason for that," says one of those posts, "Connor," who says he's just joined USC. "Thank you very much for changing my life," he concludes.

according to The key, Singer's career includes senior management positions at The Money Store / First Union Bank, managing retail banking call centers; Executive Vice President of the largest publicly traded call center company in the country, West Corporation; CEO of one of the largest call center companies in India before selling it to ICICI Bank; and also, is the author of a book called "Getting In", which advises to enter "the university of your choice".

This "serial entrepreneur" I could spend more than 20 years in prison.