College scandal: Rick Singer sits down for first interview: ‘I did it’

It’s perfect – “Everything that the FBI and the U.S. attorney and everyone else in the world says I did? I did it,” Rick Singer, 64, told Fox News in his first-ever interview about his “Varsity Blues” college scandal.

Not long ago, Singer was one of the most talked about and controversial men in the country. Today, he lives quietly in a halfway house in Los Angeles, where he awaits the completion of his entire 42-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to charges of fraud, money laundering and obstruction.

The singer says he is able to leave the middle of the house most days to work with the restaurant team.

“I’m a guy who hides in plain sight. Nobody even knows who I am,” Singer told Fox in an exclusive sit-down interview in Los Angeles. “Now, someone might see me, and I can hear people talking. But nobody cares.”

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The music charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, billed as a way to help disadvantaged children, brought in at least $25 million in what Singer called “donations” from celebrities such as actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, the singer was expected to work magic to get. their children go to top colleges.

Huffman pleaded guilty to his role in the crimes and served eleven days of a two-week sentence in a California federal prison. Loughlin pleaded guilty and served two months in a state prison in California.

Federal prosecutors said the donations were bribes and launched an extensive investigation called “Varsity Blues” to eliminate Singer and his accomplices.

According to research by Fox News, at least 50 people have pleaded guilty or been convicted of college admissions since October 2023.

“I want to apologize profusely to all the families I’ve hurt, all the children I’ve hurt. The managers I’ve hurt. My family,” said Singer in an exclusive sit-down interview in Los Angeles.

The artist’s detailed program focuses on creating fake and embellished college student applications filled with fake scores, athletic information and doctored photos. Singer hired a network of coaches and university administrators to help him fulfill fraudulent requests, and they accepted Singer’s money in what he called “side” deals.

When the news about Singer’s show started to appear, the country erupted. Parents and critics suspect that Singer robbed dozens of students of their hard-earned, guaranteed spots at some of America’s top colleges and universities, such as Georgetown, the University of Southern California and Yale University.

Singer’s scandal became a media sensation, sparking months of news coverage, books, TV specials and a Netflix documentary featuring authentic taped conversations between Singer and her clients.

Despite the anger and frustration, Singer, now a felon, insists that he did not take the place of a worthy student. Instead, he says, his plan exposed a budget trick that institutions of higher learning rely on — barring certain “spots” on sports teams and inside departments to everyday applicants and sidelining big sponsors willing to pay for a student’s admission.

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“In 90% of cases, coaches every year call me and say, ‘I’ve got an open position. I need to raise this amount of money. … I’ve got a family,'” Singer said.

When asked how he did so much damage, he said he was spoiling people’s names.

“The biggest thing is the reputation … that they’ve worked hard to create and build and become great people,” Singer said.

The singer admits to his crimes, he admits that he considers the test cheating to be the worst part. But he says college admissions offices haven’t faced the same scrutiny.

“The media missed that the colleges are my partners in this. It takes two teams to play,” said Singer.

Fox News reached out to the three schools that Singer says he is most involved with – the University of Southern California, Georgetown and Yale. So far, Yale has responded and declined to comment.

Singer told Fox that he believes he used one of the three ways a student can get into college.

They can enter through the “front door” through formal qualifications and grades, through the “back door” where the family publicly donates large sums of money to the university or campus or through the “side door.”

The singer says he knew how to backdoor fake student applications and pay off people inside the university.

“This has been going on for hundreds of years. I’m not that smart to do this,” Singer said.

The former basketball coach says he thinks his side-door deals were targeted because they were done in secret, but questions why large backdoor donations that are often given publicly in anticipation of blessings are considered acceptable.

The singer told Fox that his show started in part with a Vancouver student. The singer describes the student as someone who is smart but doesn’t read well. Therefore, Singer asked for the help of Mark Riddell, who Singer says he now feels bad for, by convincing him for $10,000 to make a mistake on the final exam of a Vancouver student. Ridell went on to become a key player in Singer’s scheme and was convicted again.

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What I can tell you, what I did was illegal, cheating on exams,” said Singer.

The singer didn’t reveal exactly how the first test was rigged, but said it involved a fake ID and described the first as a satisfying, cinematic escape that paved the way for his future misdeeds.

The singer, who considers himself a “coach” all his life, says that aside from his ministry deals, he has always had a legitimate college coaching business that he says has helped hundreds of students get into college. The singer says business moguls and Hollywood A-listers have used his legitimate college advice for their children.

Before his stay at the halfway house, Singer says he spent 16 months at the Pensacola prison camp. The singer says he made friends while in prison, most of whom he says were locked up on charges of counterfeiting the COVID-era PPE. The singer says he has never eaten food taken out of prison. Instead, she tries to find healthy grocery items to make her own meals.

The singer says he now wants to revolutionize college admissions and education through his new company called Future ID Stars, which he says will eliminate the need for college for high school students across the US by identifying their IQ, skills and competitive ability and placing them directly. at work.

“We have the idea that everyone needs to go to college, and it’s the right place for everyone. And ‘you have to go to certain schools to be successful.’ And that’s not true based on the tens of thousands of kids I’ve worked with,” Singer said.

The singer also says that he thinks that experienced mothers who want to return to work are a hidden source of loyal workers who have not been exploited.

The singer insists that everything he does going forward will be done legally and with legal review, something he admits he wishes he had been doing all along. The singer says that he has built such a respected name in the world of admissions that his parents are still trying to train him and they were doing this even during his trial.

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“I leave the court – outside the court – and I show my lawyer my phone. There are 93 texts: “Are you still coming next week?”

The artist admits that the watch may not be allowed to be illegally obtained from a college in the United States.

Asked if he thought the college admissions process could and should still be played today, Singer replied, “Every day.”