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OAN Staff James Meyers
12:03 PM – Monday, October 21, 2024
Rick Singer, the man convicted of running the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, was unapologetic in his first public address since being sentenced to three-and-a-half-years behind bars.
The disgraced 64-year-old is currently living in a halfway house in Los Angeles, where he is serving out the rest of his sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to racketeering, money laundering and obstruction charges.
At the time of the trial, the court heard he accepted bribes totaling over $25 million from parents wanting their kids in the certain schools, which included celebrities such as Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
“Now, somebody may recognize me and I can hear people talking, but nobody cares,” Singer claimed as he looked back at his crimes.
Additionally, he went on to admit that he is guilty of “everything” he was convicted for, but claimed that he is not the only one changing the college admissions system.
For several years, Singer said, he had operated a lucrative and legitimate college consulting business. However, it all changed in 2011, when he realized he could not push some clients through the “front door.”
Singer said there were three ways students can actually be admitted into colleges. First, through a “front door” with legitimate merit and grades, through a “back door,” when a family publicly donates massive amounts of money or through his “side door.”
“This has been going on for hundreds of years, I am not that smart to make up this process,” he said.
Furthermore, Singer insisted that he never took a spot from a student who deserved to be admitted, but claimed that his scheme just exposed a budget tactic that higher education institutions rely on.
He claimed colleges block particular “spots” on sports teams within departments from everyday applicants and set them aside for bigger donors willing to pay for student’s admittance.
“In 90 percent of the cases, the coaches every year are calling me saying, ‘I got a spot open, I need to raise this amount of money… Find me a family,’” he claimed, arguing the college admissions officers have not faced the same scrutiny he has.
When asked if he thought his scheme may have prevented legitimate recruits from earning their way on a collegiate team, Singer said: “All I’m doing is being the facilitator and providing the coach this choice.”
More than 50 people have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the college admission scandal as of October 2023.
I knew “it was wrong, and I did it anyways,” Singer said. “What’s 10, 12, 13 kids who are good students, quality people, and this one score may screw them out of an opportunity to go to a decent school? I rationalized that to myself.”
On March 12, 2019, which is the day he was charged, Singer said he left John Joseph Moakley in a courthouse in Boston and looked down at his phone.
He claimed he received 93 text messages in less than an hour. Singer stated that most of them were from clients looking for above-board advice and wondering whether he would still be able to meet with them for a consultation.
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