The man behind an infamous college admissions scandal has relaunched his work in admissions consulting from the inside of a Florida prison cell.
Rick Singer, 64, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for organizing what came to be called the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal, coordinating $25 million in bribe money from families determined to get their students accepted to elite universities.
He was in a Pensacola, Florida prison camp when he received an e-mail from a student asking for help with his college applications.
Singer described it as "the coolest thing ever," in an interview with ABC News, adding that the benefactor of his remote counseling was accepted to his top choice school. The disgraced admissions counselor continued responding to a steady stream of requests for his services and over the summer, launched ID Future Stars, his new college admissions counseling business.
Singer's consulting began entirely above board, but in 2011, after struggling to get some clients through the "front door" of their desired schools, he cultivated a "side door," according to his interview with ABC.
The side door began with bribing standardized testing proctors to ignore cheating, and expanded to actions that led to dozens of convictions, a media storm, and Singer's own 2019 guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy, money laundry and obstruction of justice charges.
"It was wrong, and I did it anyways," Singer admitted, adding that the conspiracy stemmed from his commitment to helping his clients. "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."
Still, he insists that he committed a "victimless crime."
Singer is now serving the remainder of his sentence from a halfway house in California, where he operates ID Future Stars, whose website proclaims, "Our extensive track record speaks volumes about our expertise and commitment to helping students achieve their academic dreams."
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