Can the rich buy their way into college?
Recently the Netflix documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admission’s Scandal was released. This scandal involved college admissions bribery to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities. This operation was being headed by a man named Rick Stinger.
Rick Stinger started as a basketball coach in Sierra College in the 1980s. Soon he became one of the first college coaches in Sacramento. Singer eventually quitted coaching and pursued college counseling full-time. It was only in 2007 that Singer launched his company ‘The Key’. Originally it provided legitimate college counselling services, but eventually morphed into a widespread racketeering expertise.
Singer targeted wealthy Americans who were willing to pay large amounts, for an assured spot at America’s most prestige colleges. He told these parents that he would be able to get their children into these colleges through something he called a “side door” (mainly cheating).
He would accept payments through his charitable organization – the Key Worldwide Foundation. This served as a front to launder bribes that were exempted from paying tax – being a non-profit organization. These profits were reportedly used to bribe university staff. Parents would pay sums from 500,000 dollars to 1.5 million dollars to have their children morphed as athletes (when they never played a sport), deemed to have a learning disability (so he could take his test with a complicit proctor), tick the minority boxes such as African American so they could get in through reserved seats.
Fifty people in six states were accused by the Justice Department of taking part in this major college admission scandal. Yale, Stanford and USC were among the colleges involved. The convicted felons included Hollywood actresses, business leaders and elite college coaches. Some of Rick’s clients were Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman, the Full House actress – Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli and money other billionaires.
Where is Ricker Singer now? In March 2019, he plead guilty to four felony charges, including money laundering conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and obstruction of justice. He is yet to testify and has therefore not been sentenced yet. A source in the documentary claims he was overheard bragging that he will not be going to jail—despite pleading guilty.
This Netflix film uncovers what the most privileged of people, with so many resources and widespread access do to get their children into college. So instead of wasting time, go watch it immediately.