Mark Riddell, the man who allegedly passed exams for "cheating" students, was "a really smart guy"

The focus is on actresses and wealthy parents, accused of a fraud scandal at the college entrance examination, but there is a key player whose backgrounds n & # 39; Have not been the subject of much discussion.

Mark Riddell – the man accused of having passed the students test for them.

Riddell faces two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, fraud in respect of honest services and conspiracy to launder money because of his alleged involvement in the scheme.

The 36-year-old is expected to face a judge Wednesday in Massachusetts. ABC News's efforts to contact Riddell for comments were unsuccessful on Tuesday night.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrew Lelling detailed the alleged ploy process at a press conference on Tuesday morning and described Riddell as "a really smart guy."

Steven Senne / AP

"He did not have any inside information about the answers, he was just smart enough to get a near-perfect score on demand or to calibrate the score," said the chief federal attorney about Riddell.

Instead, William "Rick" Singer – who pleaded guilty to the racketeering plot and other charges for orchestrating the alliance – arranged for Riddell to receive a copy of the test of a corrupt administrator and take it on behalf of the student.

"Singer would discuss with his clients the type of score they were looking for.If your daughter went alone to the SAT and got a particular score, by reviewing the exam, if her score went up too much, that would entice her to So, Singer would argue with parents about the impressive but not too impressive type of score, then ask Riddell to try to get it in. And he was just good enough to do it, "said Lelling.

The multi-page criminal complaint indicates that Riddell conspired with Singer from 2011 to 2019.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Although the court documents do not indicate the number of times Riddell participated in individual tests or corrections, he described in detail an incident that occurred in June 2018, while the original plan provided that Riddell " secretly corrects "a student's answers, after he has taken the test himself.

The complaint reads as follows: the teenager was sick when going to the Houston test site. Riddell took the test for him.

However, in at least one of the cases where Riddell has passed the exam instead of high school students, the criminal complaint accuses him of not having passed the exam with other high school students – which may have aroused suspicions because he is probably in his thirties.

According to the criminal complaint, the parent "provided Singer with an example of the handwriting of the parent's son 1 so that Riddell could imitate him during the examination in his place".

Riddell – based in Palmetto, Florida, south of Tampa – would receive a copy of the ACT from a corrupted test administrator and would take the exam in his hotel room after it's over. 39, be returned to one of the two alleged test centers involved in the scandal. .

The criminal complaint adds that Riddell reported to Singer that he "had predicted that he would get a rating of 35 out of 36 on the ACT exam".

Jeffrey Greenberg / UIG via Getty Images, FILE

Riddell was paid $ 10,000 for his part in this scheme and, he was right: he got 35 points on the exam.

According to the Miami Herald, Riddell was the director of entrance exam preparation at the University of IMG Academy, a Florida-based facility that focuses on improving student academic and athletic performance . IMG Academy did not immediately return the ABC News comment request.

A biography of Riddell has been removed from the IMG Academy website, but a cached version of the site indicates that he has been working at the academy since 2006. The cached site indicates that he has been working at the Academy. he is an alumnus of Harvard University and that he "helps thousands of students to be admitted to the top of American universities such as Stanford, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth, the University. of Chicago and many other notable institutions. "

He is also a ranked professional tennis player and a member of the IMG Academy.