The federal case against Rick Singer, the scammer who helped pave the way for the lackluster children of celebrities to enter elite colleges, has finally concluded.
Singer was sentenced on January 4 to three and a half years in federal prison. He will also have to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $10 million and forfeit more than $5 million in assets.
Singer reports for his imprisonment in February.
The sham wasn’t complicated. Actors and other wealthy clients paid Singer to arrange favorable scores on their children’s ACT and SAT tests. They essentially paid him to get their children admitted to some of the nation’s top schools as athletes and scholars, when the young people clearly were neither.
Fees for these “services” ranged between $15,000 to $75,000 and could be written off as “charitable donations.” This is how the money was laundered, through Singer’s fake charity.
Singer’s sentencing was billed in some news coverage as proof that the same rules apply to everyone. Despite their clout and expansive bank accounts, the parents involved in the so-called “Operation Varsity Blues” scheme got caught and have been prosecuted.
Yes, they were — an astounding 53 cases have been finalized.
And top institutions – Yale, USC, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Stanford – suffered reputation hits, despite not being…
