The man prosecutors name the “architect and mastermind” of the nationwide faculty admissions bribery scheme that ensnared celebrities, distinguished businesspeople and different dad and mom who used their wealth and privilege to purchase their youngsters’ means into top-tier faculties was sentenced to three 1/2 years in jail Wednesday.
The punishment for Rick Singer, 62, is the longest sentence handed down within the sprawling scandal that embarrassed among the nation’s most prestigious universities and put a highlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the wealthy.
Federal prosecutors had requested for six years behind bars for Singer.
Minutes after the sentence was handed down, Rachael Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, stated Singer had “finally been held accountable.”
“It was clear this case would change the way colleges and universities do business — and it certainly did,” Rollins stated.
The scandal embarrassed elite universities throughout the nation, put a highlight on the secretive admissions system already seen as rigged in favor of the wealthy and laid naked the measures some dad and mom will take to get their youngsters into the college of their selection.
Singer, 62, started secretly cooperating with investigators and labored with the FBI to file a whole bunch of cellphone calls and conferences earlier than the arrest of dozens of oldsters and athletic coaches in March 2019. More than 50 individuals — together with well-liked TV actresses and distinguished businessmen — have been finally convicted within the case authorities dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
In the practically 4 years for the reason that scandal exploded into newspaper headlines, Singer remained out of jail and stored largely silent publicly. He was by no means referred to as as a witness by prosecutors within the instances that went to trial, however will get an opportunity to handle the court docket earlier than the decide arms down his sentence in Boston federal court docket.
In a letter to the decide, Singer blamed his actions on his “winning at all costs” perspective, which he stated was precipitated partly by suppressed childhood trauma. His lawyer is requesting three years of probation, or if the decide deems jail time mandatory, six months behind bars.
“By ignoring what was morally, ethically, and legally right in favor of winning what I perceived was the college admissions ‘game,’ I have lost everything,” Singer wrote.
Singer pleaded responsible in 2019 — on the identical day the huge case grew to become public — to costs together with racketeering conspiracy and cash laundering conspiracy. Dozens of others finally pleaded responsible to costs, whereas two dad and mom have been convicted at trial.
Authorities in Boston started investigating the scheme after an government beneath scrutiny for an unrelated securities fraud scheme instructed investigators {that a} Yale soccer coach had provided to assist his daughter get into the college in change for money. The Yale coach led authorities to Singer, whose cooperation unraveled the sprawling scandal.
For years, Singer paid off entrance examination directors or proctors to inflate college students’ check scores and bribed coaches to designate candidates as recruits for sports activities they often did not even play, searching for to spice up their probabilities of entering into the college. Singer took in additional than $25 million from his shoppers, paid bribes totaling greater than $7 million, and used greater than $15 million of his shoppers’ cash for his personal profit, in accordance with prosecutors.
“He was the architect and mastermind of a criminal enterprise that massively corrupted the integrity of the college admissions process — which already favors those with wealth and privilege — to a degree never before seen in this country,” prosecutors wrote in court docket paperwork.
If the decide agrees with prosecutors, it will be by far the longest sentence handed down within the case. So far, the hardest punishment has gone to former Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon Ernst, who obtained 2 1/2 years in jail for pocketing greater than $3 million in bribes.
Others ensnared within the scandal included “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin, her dressmaker husband Mossimo Giannulli, and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman. Punishments for the dad and mom have ranged from probation to fifteen months behind bars, though although the mother or father who obtained that jail sentence stays free whereas he appeals his conviction.
One mother or father, who wasn’t accused of working with Singer, was acquitted on all counts stemming from accusations that he bribed Ernst to get his daughter into the college. And a decide ordered a brand new trial for former University of Southern California water polo Jovan Vavic, who was convicted of accepting bribes.