Rick Singer, the man behind the college admissions scandal, is advising students again

Rick Singer, the man convicted of orchestrating the so-called ‘Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal, has continued to advise prospective students on their college applications while serving his sentence in federal prison in Florida, and now from a halfway house in California.

Singer, 64, a former college admissions counselor who pleaded guilty in 2019 to facilitating bribes between wealthy parents and elite universities in exchange for their children’s enrollment, told ABC News that he began advising students — pro bono — after he was last convicted year.

While in a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, this past admissions season, Singer said, “The coolest thing that ever happened.”

“I had a young man send me an email and say, ‘Can you help me with my applications and tell me if I could get into these schools?'” Singer told ABC News during a sit-down interview.

The applicant sent Singer his high school transcript and a list of his credentials. Singer, whose advice was once sought by senior executives and Hollywood actors, wrote back and offered a few tips. The student was accepted to his top school in March, Singer said.

This summer, Singer launched a new venture called ID Future Stars, a consulting company with an 80% to 96% acceptance rate in top-choice schools. According to the place“Our success speaks for itself.”

But his return to the world of college admissions could be a challenge. Singer’s reputation crumbled after he pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice charges in the decades-long scheme that federal investigators dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”

Federal prosecutors in Boston said Singer facilitated $25 million in transfers of families to college administrators and athletic coaches, who doled out spots on their rosters to meet their fundraising goals. Singer transferred, spent or otherwise used more than $15 million for his own benefit, they said.

“Everything the U.S. attorney said, and the FBI said, and everyone else said I did, I did,” Singer told ABC.

But even four years later, Singer said the conspiracy amounted to a “victimless crime.”

News of the college admissions scandal broke in 2019, when Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, announced charges against Singer and more than 50 others, including college coaches, test administrators and actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.

The charges led to about 50 convictions and became the subject of at least four books, a Lifetime movie and a Netflix documentary.

In January 2023, a judge sentenced Singer to 42 months in prison. In August, he was released to a halfway house near Los Angeles.

Singer said he ran a lucrative and legitimate college counseling business for years. But that changed around 2011, when he realized he couldn’t push some customers through what he called the “front door.” He had grown close to the students and their families and wanted to do what he could to help them, so he developed a new admissions plan: the “side door.”

Although Singer said the majority of his advice has always been legitimate, he explained that the new plan started with one student and quickly expanded.

“There was a young man who was super talented and went all out,” Singer said. But the student always performed poorly on SAT or ACT practice exams.

So he found a way to get the student’s application to the top of the pile: He started bribing standardized test inspectors to turn a blind eye to allowing cheating on the exams, prosecutors said.

I knew “it was wrong, and I did it anyway,” Singer said. “What are 10, 12, 13 kids who are good students, quality people, and this one score could deprive them of the opportunity to go to a decent school? I rationalized that to myself.”

Soon after, the stakes grew. Singer was well-known in the higher education world, and he said presidents of several prestigious universities had contacted him in hopes that his clients would donate millions of dollars to their schools.

He said he began organizing meetings between the presidents and parents to discuss whether their children were enrolling in college. “The negotiations would go from whether the school is a good fit for the student to, ‘What does the president need? What does the family need? Would there be anything involved?'” he said, referring to a monetary favor.

Singer, a former basketball coach, said he was sympathetic to coaches and the pressure they faced to raise money ahead of their sports season. That’s why he said he started setting up similar meetings between them and his clients. Sometimes he falsified the students’ athletics records to push through their applications.

“At first I went to three, four coaches. Then the word got out to all the coaches, and coaches started calling me every year,” Singer said.

“If they had to raise $250,000 or $500,000 for the program, they would call me and say, ‘Hey, I have a spot. Do you have a family that would like to come here?'” he said.

When asked if he thought his plan would have prevented legitimate recruits from earning their spot on a collegiate team, Singer said, “All I’m doing is being the facilitator and offering the coach that choice.”

On March 12, 2019, the day he was charged, Singer said he left the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in Boston and looked at his phone.

He said he received 93 text messages in less than an hour. Most, Singer said, were from clients looking for sound advice and wondering if he would still be able to meet them for a consultation.