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BOSTON – William Singer, 59, of Newport Beach, Calif., Is a businessman who, according to prosecutors, has managed and profited from the fraudulent scheme.
Mr. Singer, sometimes known as Rick Singer, has been cooperating with federal investigators since September 2018. He pleaded guilty to four counts in federal court in Boston on Tuesday.
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A tanned man, with a lean, gray-haired face and cut to the body, Mr. Singer remained motionless and was carefully watching the judge, Rya W. Zobel, as she explained the charges and set out the rights that he had. gave up pleading guilty. He said, "Yes, ma'am" every time the judge asked him if he understood.
When the judge asked Mr. Singer to describe his role in the plot, he became very understanding and talked for about 10 minutes about his methods.
He talked about getting students to take SAT or ACT exams at sites in Houston or Los Angeles where he had corrupted test administrators. The students thought they were legitimately undergoing the tests, he said, but his supervisor would correct some of their answers later so that their scores would be calculated exactly as Mr. Singer wanted.
He bribed university coaches, he said, to falsely certify that students had been recruited for the school's sports teams. Prosecutors said they also falsified ethnicities and other biographical details in some cases, in order to take advantage of positive action.
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Mr. Singer also explained how, after becoming a witness and having learned that he could not talk about the investigation to anyone, he had informed several families that his conversations were recorded by the authorities and had put them on the line. caution not to incriminate.
He was released on bail and left the courthouse after the hearing with his lawyers. One of them, Donald H. Heller, said coming out of the courthouse that Mr Singer had a lot of remorse and that he had the intention to cooperate fully.
"I'm sure there will be more things to come," Heller said. "I can tell you that he is a very stoic person, but it was very emotional for him because, all his life, he worked with children who went to university, and the situation became out of control."
Here are some key points about Mr. Singer, from court documents, statements from his lawyers, previous reports and a biographical sketch on a company website.
The for-profit business: Mr. Singer is the owner of Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key – a for-profit academic consulting and development company that offers families to help students access competitive universities and colleges. He also owns related businesses.
The non-profit organization: Mr. Singer created and runs the Key Worldwide Foundation, which claims to be a charitable organization and, according to prosecutors, has been used to conceal the true nature of the payments made by parents.
The charges: A charge of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice.
His deposit Mr. Singer was released on bail of $ 500,000. Eric S. Rosen, a federal prosecutor in the case, said the case would be secured by a California property owned by Mr. Singer's brother. Prosecutors are demanding the confiscation of a large number of the assets of Mr. Singer, his businesses and the foundation, under the federal racketeering legislation.
His admission: "All that Mr. Rosen said is absolutely true – all those things, and many more, I did," Singer told the court Tuesday, citing a summary of the charges brought by Mr. Rosen.
What he was selling: He called it a "side door" in the university, one that would surely open. "If I can make the comparison, there is an entrance door, where a student does it alone," Singer told the court. "And then, there's a back door where people go to institutional advancement and make big donations, but they're not guaranteed. And then I created a side door that guaranteed the entry of families. So that's what made it so very attractive to so many families, I've created a guarantee. "
His career: Mr. Singer started as a teacher and sports coach and founded his first university consulting firm, Future Stars, in Sacramento in 1992, according to a 2005 profile in the Sacramento Business Journal. He sold it a few years later and worked for some time as executive director of call centers, and then set up another admission consulting firm, The CollegeSource, in Sacramento in 2004. He also contributed to the development from an online high school sold to educational services. Kaplan company. He published a book of tips on college entry in 2014.
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