Goldberg: You ready for a wild story?
For most kids, if you wanted to get into a top-tier college,
you had to be a top-tier student...
Until this guy figured out a way to cheat the system.
Man as singer: What we do is we help the wealthiest families in the u.S.
Get their kids into school.
Jenks: It was the biggest fraud in the history of education.
We're talking $25 million.
Did you really work with over 700 families?
Goldberg: What he did would explode
into one of the country's biggest scandals.
It was a spectacle.
You're watching aunt becky on a perp walk.
That's wild!
Goldberg: He masterminded a scam
that would ultimately take down the rich and famous.
Man as singer: It's the homerun of homeruns.
Man as caplan: And it works.
[ laughing ] every time.
These wealthy parents tried to rig the college game,
but in the end, they would be the ones getting schooled.
I'm whoopi goldberg, and this is "the con."
let's start at the beginning... Of the end,
with a con that burst onto the national stage.
Tonight, breaking news, the growing outrage --
50 people charged in a nationwide bribery scheme.
Goldberg: The scandal goes beyond the names you know --
a desperate housewife...
...Aunt becky.
Woman: [ screams ] we love you!
It includes captains of industry,
big-time lawyers,
best-selling authors,
wall street ceos,
even the heiress to the hot pockets fortune --
all now in hot water
and on their way to this boston courtroom.
Mosley: If things had worked out differently,
this would still be happening, and we wouldn't know.
And this morning, we're learning new details
about how the fbi uncovered it all.
300 agents across six states, wiretaps, a yearlong sting.
Goldberg: This is a story of a massive college fraud
that dominated the news.
But this isn't the old "make a donation
to your alma mater to get your kid in" situation.
This is an outright con.
Mosley: There is one powerful man who was pulling
all the strings behind the scenes --
a masterful con artist.
And that man is rick singer.
Goldberg: Rick knows how to play parental anxieties like a maestro,
as he lays out in a reality show pitch tape he made.
Mom and dad go to a dinner party.
They hear about every kid who's doing --
getting into this school, going to this summer program,
doing this, doing that.
Sunday morning, my phone rings off the hook.
Goldberg: Rick would ease parents' minds by guaranteeing
that he could get their kids into the school of their dreams.
And he could back it up.
Golden: Rick was a terrific salesman.
He was very good at touting himself.
He seemed to move very easily in very exclusive circles.
Celebrities and business executives accepted him
as one of their own.
Singer was really an interesting person
to make his way into these circles.
The most notable thing about rick singer
is that he is an intensely, intensely competitive man.
♪
he just had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
He was driven to prove himself --
"I am as good as everyone els"
korn: He was not the most polished person.
He usually wore a tracksuit.
Dressing up for him was khakis and a button-down
and some sort of a sweater vest often.
He was very blunt.
And somehow, that actually was attractive to this community.
He hit the scene at the perfect time for this kind of a scheme.
The mid-2000s were great for rick singer.
Applications had gone computerized,
so you could now, instead of apply to 3 or 4 schools,
kids were applying to 10 schools.
Colleges were getting more and more selective.
Parents look at the statistics and see, "oh, my god,
I'd like my child to go to this school,
but it only admits 5% of its applicants."
this causes a kind of desperation among parents
and a kind of anxiety.
Goldberg: No one is immune to that desperation --
not even celebrities.
And one of rick's biggest, high-profile clients
is lori loughlin --
america's sweetheart, beloved by millions
for her roles on "90210" and "full house,"
where she actually talked about honesty on one of her episodes.
We may have --
well, he may have [chuckles] embellished --
lied a bit on our application.
She's even got a super successful husband, mossimo,
who is a renowned fashion designer.
Rick has already helped lori and mossimo
get their older daughter into usc.
Now they're hoping to get their younger daughter,
olivia jade, in, too.
But there's one small problem.
Olivia -- she had a thriving youtube channel.
She was a social media influencer.
She didn't really like school.
Goldberg: A sentiment she has no problem voicing on social media.
So, I told my mom I wanted to quit school,
and then she was like, "that's not happening."
korn: College, especially for olivia, was not her focus,
but her parents continued to push her and said, you know,
"you have to go to college."
one of the factors at play here was ego --
of the parents.
These parents really saw their children
as a reflection of themselves and their own success.
So, you're at these cocktail parties on a Saturday night.
You wouldn't necessarily lead the conversation with,
"oh, my son's a cal state long beach."
goldberg: Olivia jade's parents want to get her into usc,
a school with an acceptance rate of 16%.
But she's not a serious student.
So how is rick gonna pull it off?
So, there are different ways to get into college.
Goldberg: Andrew jenks is a podcaster fascinated with this story
and with a system that is so vulnerable to manipulation.
The front door is, you apply and you get in.
The back door is, parents have a lot of money,
and they donate millions of dollars,
and the school feels obligated to let the student in.
The back door was for the really richest of the rich.
Rick singer discovered "maybe there's a side door."
the side door was for people who were willing
to give maybe a few hundred thousand dollars.
Goldberg: Sounds like a deal to me.
Rick pitches his side-door scheme to lori and mossimo
as a guaranteed way to get olivia jade
into the school of their --
I mean [chuckles] her dreams.
Rick's side door is like the back door, only sneakier.
First, rick approaches a school coach
or athletic department administrator
and entices them with boatloads of cash.
Then he convinces the ones who buy in
to recruit his client's kid in a particular sport.
Olivia jade, for example, would be recruited by usc as a --
a rower?
Which would take some work,
because division 1 schools, like usc,
normally only take elite athletes,
and olivia jade's rowing résumé is -- well, it's a little thin.
Korn: Olivia was not a rower,
but they did have an erg in their home gym.
Goldberg: Okay. I guess that's a start.
Rick would have the parents get him a photo of their kid
doing the sport he chose for them --
in this case, a shot of olivia jade on her erg.
Sometimes he'd even steal photos of real athletes
and have their faces photoshopped on top of them.
Yeah! Like that!
Next, rick would create a fake athletic profile
to submit it to the school.
Olivia jade's rowing profile boasted of actual races
that dedicated young people worked hard to compete in.
Just not olivia jade.
Why don't the colleges catch on
that these athletic profiles are not real?
Korn: Usually, the admissions officers
didn't really look that closely at it.
A coach would be crazy to give up a recruiting spot
for anyone who's not a qualified athlete,
goldberg: But surprise! They do!
Because money is...
[ chuckling ] well, money.
Rick then collects the fee for his services.
In this case, lori and mossimo send $200,000
to the key worldwide foundation, rick's fake charity --
a nice little thank-you for helping get olivia jade
in usc's class of 2022.
She updates her fans on her future
in this now-infamous deleted youtube video.
My first week of school, I'm leaving to go to fiji.
I don't know how much of school I'm gonna attend,
but I do want the experience of, like, game days, partying...
I don't really care about school,
as you guys all know. [ chuckles ]
goldberg: Lori and mossimo have now spent half a million dollars
to get olivia jade and her older sister, bella,
into usc.
[ laughing ] okay, bye, you guys. Man: Thank you so much.
Sure, rick's scheme is illegal, but it's working like a charm,
making possible his swanky digs in newport beach.
Jenks: Rick was able to do this for years --
from the very least -- 2011 to 2018.
Goldberg: But just when he's at the top of his game,
rick becomes a target of the fbi.
And before it's all over, he'll be working for them,
helping bring his collegiate con and everyone involved
crashing down.
You're about to hear how it all happened,
with the help of the fbi wiretaps
of this con artist and his clients.
Man as singer: I can do anythig and everything
if you guys are amenable to doing it.
♪
goldberg: In 2018, rick singer is riding high,
using his innovative -- and also illegal -- side door
to get kids into elite colleges.
And he's about to pop up on the radar of the fbi.
It turns out rick had been pushing his luck
for a long time.
Rick singer was -- yeah, he was intensely driven.
This seemed to start when he was a little boy,
and he was living outside chicago
in a fairly affluent suburb,
but he was in a lower-middle-class household.
There was this awareness of class.
He would tell his friends, "I'm gonna be a millionaire.
I'm gonna have a huge house.
I'm gonna really make something of myself."
he was a chubby kid,
and they called him "fat man singer."
and he did not want to be the chubby kid.
He set out at one point to lose weight
and ran in the hot sun all summer to remake himself.
And he did -- he lost a lot of weight,
but he was never satisfied.
And that kind of continued throughout his life.
Goldberg: After rick graduated college, he became a basketball coach
and learned some critical information
about college athletics and admissions.
During his coaching years,
what he learned was that if you're an athlete,
you have a tremendous advantage in getting into college.
You have a preferred status.
And then you had coaches who felt they weren't paid enough
and were tired of raising money,
and they didn't have a lot of oversight.
Goldberg: So rick left coaching behind and became a...Consultant.
Amott: In 1993, I was a volunteer
at a local public high school counseling office,
and we were putting on a college night at the high school.
And rick singer asked to be a speaker.
He was the first educational consultant in sacramento,
so he provided a service that no one had ever heard of.
Goldberg: Rick was what you would call an educational consultant.
That's like a guidance counselor at a high school,
minus the high school part.
And rick knew how to pitch himself,
like in this promotional video he made.
Getting into the right college will set the trajectory
for the rest of your son or daughter's life.
Don't leave it to chance.
Goldberg: Rick's business was growing,
but margie was starting to hear lots of rumor,
so she decided to do a little digging.
Amott: One day, I went on his website,
and he had this college advisory committee.
There, he had listed some very prominent presidents
and chancellors and deans of different universities.
And I was outraged because I knew this couldn't be true.
Reider: Margie called me at work.
She told me all this, and I was horrified.
Working in the admissions office,
I knew nobody had connections to us.
He was talking off the top of his head
and bragging about these connections
who were substantial people.
It was very obvious to me
that this guy was all hat and no cattle.
Amott: You have to realize that rick did not belong
to any associations.
What he was doing was not illegal.
It may have been grossly unethical. It was not illegal.
There was nowhere to turn him in.
Goldberg: And now rick was ready to take his "grossly unethical,
but maybe technically not illegal" business
to the next level.
Korn: Rick singer was gaining a reputation
in the sacramento area,
but if he wanted to really up his game,
southern california was the place to be.
So he moved down to l.A.
Goldberg: In l.A., rick started snagging bigger and bigger clients.
He was perfecting his game,
though not everyone chose to play.
Carroll: The first time rick singer came over to my house,
he was dressed in this combination
of business casual and athleisure wear.
Big personality, used car salesman --
"I've got all the connections.
I'm gonna hook you up. I'm gonna e-mail --
hold on. I got to take this call. I'm very important.
My time is very important, and I'm giving it to you.
And you're very special, too,
and you should give me a lot of money to do this."
but I do think that his charm was real.
Goldberg: Mackin says rick encouraged him
to fabricate a story on a college essay.
Carroll: I would say to myself,
"oh, maybe that's just part of being an adult,
is you have to make little compromises like this."
I could see myself being talked into...
Lying.
Goldberg: Mackin says that he ultimately decided not to lie.
But setbacks like these did not bother rick.
He had plenty of takers.
If they had the cash, rick had the key
to getting their kids into the best schools in the country.
Jenks: He saw a system in place he could cheat
and had the gall to just do it.
I mean, it was this extraordinary scheme
that he had going
that probably would still be going on to this day
if it weren't for some other guy
getting caught in a fluke accident.
Goldberg: In 2018, just as rick's business is booming,
a guy he's never heard of gets picked up
for a massive global securities fraud,
and in order to try and save his skin,
he tips the feds off to another fraud
happening right here in the hallowed halls of yale.
Jenks: What ends up coming out of his mouth
is that he was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars
to the yale soccer coach to get his daughter into yale.
That coach then says, "oh, what I'm doing is nothing.
There's this other guy who's doing this
all over the country."
korn: At that point, the prosecutors didn't know who singer was.
They had never really heard that name before at all.
So they thought, "oh, boy.
We need to learn a little bit more."
levitz: Using this information, they get permission from the court
to tap rick singer's phone.
Goldberg: Hoping to gather evidence,
the fbi starts secretly listening in on rick's calls,
having no idea just how huge
his college counseling con game really is.
Jenks: They wiretapped a lot of the conversations
that rick singer had with the different parents.
Goldberg: Many of these calls
would eventually be entered into evidence.
You're about to hear re-creations
from the "gangster capitalism" podcast
of the official transcript from the fbi wiretaps.
Man as caplan: Look, I'm particularly interested in working with you guys
in figuring out what's best for my daughter.
Man as singer: It's the homerun of homeruns.
And it works.
[ laughing ] every time.
But that's not even rick's biggest boast.
So, I did 761 what I would call side doors.
Oops.
With the fbi listening to his every word,
rick says that he's done his super illegal side doors
for over 700 students.
And to the feds' delight, in call after call,
he lays out the entire scheme on a silver platter.
It's $75,000 to get any test scores
you would like to get on the sat or the act.
No one has ever gotten in trouble with this?
I've never had an issue with anybody.
So, how do I get this done with you?
What do I need to do?
♪
man as singer: Okay, so, who we are, what we do
is we help the wealthiest families in the u.S.
Get their kids into school.
Goldberg: The wealthy parent rick is pitching to
is gordon caplan, a prominent new york attorney
and potential new client for his college admission scam.
Rick's offering to get caplan's daughter into a top college
for the bargain price of 75 grand.
Levitz: Gordon caplan was the co-chair of a global law firm.
He was very well known. He'd been dealmaker of the year.
He lived in greenwich, connecticut, with his family.
Caplan's daughter was a good tennis player.
Goldberg: But in caplan's mind, her test scores aren't going to cut it.
He wants his daughter to get a better act score.
Goldberg: So rick pitches caplan something he calls side door #2.
That's right -- rick's got two side doors --
side door #1, where he sneaks fake athletes,
like olivia jade, into school,
and side door #2,
where he rigs students' scores on the sat or act tests.
Let's let rick explain how.
We need to get your daughter tested
for a learning difference.
Here's why.
If she gets tested for a learning difference,
and let's say it's my person that does it,
I need that person to get her 100% extended time
over multiple days.
If they got enough extra time, they could then take the test
somewhere else besides their school
or their home testing center.
And I also need to tell your daughter,
when she gets tested, to be as...
To be stupid, not to be as smart as she is.
The goal is to be slow.
Man as caplan: To be honest, it feels a little weird.
I know it does. I know it does.
The fact that he's casually trying to convince this man
to tell his daughter
to pretend that she has a learning disability
or a mental disability, it's kind of gross.
Goldberg: Caplan has reservations, so rick offers up more details.
He tells caplan
that once a student gets extended testing time,
they go to a special testing site, which rick controls.
That's because rick has bribed the guy
who runs the testing site -- a man named igor dvorskiy.
Thanks to rick's generosity,
his clients' kids, like kaplan's daughter,
get to take the test in a private room.
She will think when she's done with the test
that she has taken the test.
No doubt about it.
She will walk out the door.
At the end of it, she'll say to you
"it was so hard" or "I'm so tired"
or whatever the typical reaction out of the kids.
And that's when rick's ace test taker,
harvard grad mark riddell, enters the picture.
Mark will then look at all of her answers,
because her answers will be put on a separate sheet of paper,
and then mark will go through the answers
and then ensure whatever score we decide that we want to get.
Unbelievable that he can do it.
Riddell's illegal side hustle is earning him big bucks.
Veritas, his alma mater harvard's latin motto --
"truth."
to be honest, I'm not worried about the moral issue here.
I'm worried about the -- if she's caught doing that,
you know, she's finished.
It's never happened before in 20 some odd years.
Jenks: To think that he went out of his way to say,
"I don't care about the mor--"
like, that's, like, you're committing a crime,
and as you're committing it, you kind of look back and say,
like, "just so you know, I'm cool doing this."
it's the homerun of homeruns.
And it works.
[ laughing ] every time.
The daughter didn't know what her dad was doing.
She was in the dark about the testing scheme.
It was so funny, 'cause the kids will call me and say,
"maybe I should do that again. I did pretty well.
And if I took it again, I'd do even better."
they just have no idea that they didn't
even get the score that they thought they got.
Right.
Goldberg: Even with his daughter in the dark about his plans,
caplan is reluctant to move forward.
And as smooth as rick is, caplan won't commit --
yet.
Meanwhile, the fbi continues collecting evidence
for their sting -- code-named operation varsity blues.
And you might just recognize
who they pick up on the wiretap next.
Woman as huffman: Hey. Thank you so much for calling.
♪
goldberg: College consultant rick singer
is under surveillance by the fbi,
and their wiretaps lead them right to wisteria lane,
where a former desperate housewife
faces a parenting dilemma.
How far should she go
to help her daughter get a better score on the sat?
[ cellphone rings ]
so, felicity huffman
takes a call
from a man she knows can help.
Woman as huffman: Hey. Thank you so much for calling.
My husband gave me the update that she'll take the test
March -- man as singer: 9th.
...9th at her high school,
and then we'll plan it again for may. May.
'cause she said she wanted to take it
a couple of times anyway. Yep.
Felicity huffman, obviously very well-known actress.
She was on "desperate housewives."
her husband is william macy.
Goldberg: With three emmys and 18 nominations between them,
felicity and her husband, william,
are the quintessential hollywood power couple.
They're just a very successful couple.
They live in a beautiful home.
They have two daughters.
Korn: Felicity huffman actually had a mom blog for a while
where she talked about how she was a fairly insecure parent.
Her blog had merch that you could buy --
you know, "good enough mom."
you know, there was this kind of snarkiness,
but also a celebration of being good enough.
[ crowd "aww"s ]
goldberg: Felicity had already used rick
to boost her older daughter's sat scores
without her knowing.
And when the fbi started listening in,
she was considering a second helping of his scam.
They were considering
doing the same testing scheme for the younger daughter.
After all, if you give one kid an advantage,
how can you not do that for their sibling, right?
Based on the schools she thinks she wants to go to,
we're gonna have to get her a 1400-plus.
Yes.
And, you know, the tutor gave her a practice test,
and, as I said to you, you know,
she came in at around 1200,
and she said, you know, "we can bring that up."
we can go 14.
Yeah, we can bring that up.
He's appealing to these parents' love for their children,
their desire to give them anything that they want,
and the fact that they have the resources to do it.
Goldberg: Felicity still can't decide --
should she chance it and let her younger daughter
try to get into a college with her own sat scores
or pay singer again to juice the results?
From the time they had a wire up on singer,
the prosecutors and the fbi
were just getting all of this material.
You're getting these names.
It was an absolute gold mine for them.
Goldberg: But the feds still don't know all the players involved,
so they stick with the wiretaps, and the clients keep coming.
Up next -- jane buckingham,
who just happens to be one of felicity's mom friends.
Jane buckingham is a youth-marketing expert
who's written several books, including a book on parenting.
If you had to kind of name the irony of different parents
being involved in this, I mean, she certainly would be
one of the people at the top of the list.
Goldberg: And that irony is on full display
in this tv show she did.
When your friends tell you to lie on your résumé,
you 100% do not do it.
But lie about your act scores?
Guess that might be a gray area.
So rick arranges for jane's 17-year-old son
to travel to houston to one of rick's rigged test sites.
But there's a minor scheduling complication.
Woman as buckingham: It just depends on whether he gets the surgery or not.
Man as singer: I know. I know.
He can't fly for two weeks after that.
Jane's son gets tonsillitis,
and he's not really supposed to travel,
and they would have to get on a flight
in order for him to cheat.
So jane asks rick something
that we don't think he's ever heard before.
So, my question is --
there's no way for him to not go
and it still to be done, I assume?
It's incredible to listen to jane buckingham ask rick,
"does my kid even have to show up at all?"
can you give me a test for him to take at home
that we proctor him -- that I proctor him?
We could do something like that.
"can't we just give him a fake exam over the weekend at home,
and you'll have your guy take the test?"
if you think it's doable...
Yeah.
Of course, rick, being the con man that he is,
says, "yeah, you know what? Why not?"
goldberg: Rick's test ninja, mark riddell, flies to houston,
but not before jane gives him a sample of her son's handwriting.
Mark then takes the exam, forging the kid's signature
and copying his handwriting on the essay section.
All the while, jane's son is completely unaware
of what's going on.
As soon as the test booklet's turned in,
it's time to talk payment.
So, your donation is gonna be 50.
Will you send me where and how I should send the check?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We'll send it so that you get your irs tax write-off.
Oh! Even better.
It appears tax deductions could also be a bonus offering
for rick singer's clients.
So, how exactly did that work?
♪
hackney: Rick would have the parents pay his foundation,
and he would say, "look, you pay me the $75,000,
pay me the $50,000,
and I'm gonna write you a letter saying that this went
to a 501(c)(3) charitable organization,
and you can deduct that."
$25 million moved through this system.
From a federal income tax perspective,
that's saving the parents 43% in tax
from money that they've used for their own personal goods, right?
So 40% of $25 million, right?
That's $10 million.
[ chuckles ] so we're talking about $10 million.
What happens when they don't pay that money?
You and I do.
You're putting it on the back of the poor.
You're putting it on the back of the middle class.
That's what's happening here.
So often, the rich believe -- genuinely believe --
that they're just living on a different playing field,
and if they want to bribe their way into school
and get a write-off for it at the same time,
that's what they'll do.
Goldberg: Finally, after months of gathering evidence,
the feds have enough to make a move.
And so when rick takes his next business trip,
they go for it.
Levitz: He gets to the hotel,
and he is greeted by about four federal agents.
♪
korn: They confront him and say,
"we know everything you've been doing."
he got the opportunity to call his lawyer,
and then they started having discussions with the prosecutors
about possible cooperation agreements.
Goldberg: If rick signs a cooperation agreement with the fbi,
he'll have to spill the beans about all the people
who have participated in his college admissions scam.
Singer would have to sing.
The fbi couldn't have gotten luckier in finding rick
because as a con artist,
your number-one priority is saving yourself.
Goldberg: So, in a flash, rick singer goes from con artist
to confidential informant.
I think he decided that,
if he was gonna be a government witness,
he was gonna be the best one ever.
♪
goldberg: So, in September of 2018,
college consultant rick singer is busted for his elaborate con.
Now he's agreed to flip on his clients
and become a government informant.
Levitz: Initially, he's a reluctant witness,
but when he gets on board,
he gets on board in a really big way.
Goldberg: The fbi wants to catch rick's criminal clients in the act,
so they ask him to call them up
and pretend like it's just business as usual.
So, in working with the fbi, rick's goal was
to get all of his clients to incriminate themselves,
and he has to do this as naturally as possible.
Goldberg: When rick calls felicity huffman, she's worried
that using his scheme to fake her daughter's sat scores
might raise too many red flags.
Woman as huffman: I just didn't know if it'd be odd for the tutor
if we go, "oh, she did this in March 9th,
but she did so much better in may."
I don't know if that'd be like...
If the tutor would be like, "wow!"
man as singer: The tutor is just doing her job,
so I don't think she gets well engaged in that kind of world.
Okay. So I wouldn't worry about that.
I think for the average person, this would be
a tough conversation, but to rick, this came easily.
I don't think these people even thought about jail time
while they were doing this,
because he made it seem like a walk in the park.
Goldberg: He may have made it sound easy, but felicity still isn't sold.
She was really torn.
It wasn't a clear, "yes, I'm gonna do it for her."
it kind of lived through this drama of "will she, won't she?"
throughout fall of 2018 into early 2019,
when they finally say,
"you know what? No. We're not going to do it."
goldberg: But it's too little too late,
because felicity's already admitted
that she cheated for her older daughter's sat scores,
and that's enough for the fbi to make a case.
Gordon caplan isn't so torn.
Without his daughter's knowledge,
he decides to go through with the scheme,
like jane buckingham had done.
So, caplan, huffman, and buckingham are slam dunks,
but rick still has hundreds of other clients --
most of them past clients.
The feds want them, too.
You have this guy who is saying, you know,
"I've worked with all these parents.
We've cheated on all these tests and with all these schools,"
but they really just have rick's word.
Goldberg: The feds need more, which means rick is gonna need a ploy
to get these former clients talking.
And the fbi comes up with a brilliant idea.
Man as singer: They just startd an audit on my foundation.
Man as huneeus: Yeah?
They've been asking about
both past and present payments, so...
Jenks: Rick starts calling the parents,
telling them that the irs is auditing his nonprofit.
Goldberg: That's right -- the same phony nonprofit that rick used
to funnel the money from all his clients.
It's a good ruse because people are scared of the irs and taxes,
and it causes people to want to get their stories straight.
Jenks: Now, why that's so clever
is that he starts re-explaining to them
what they had done together.
Goldberg: So, rick calls lori loughlin
to chat about her $500,000 donation
and, you know, just get her
to implicate herself in a massive fraud.
The irs audits large foundations,
and we have so much money in our foundation,
and we give away so much money there.
They want to -- you know,
they're always worried about things going on in foundations.
Woman as loughlin: I see.
If they happen to call you,
is that nothing has been said about the girls --
your donations, helping the girls get into usc to do --
even though they didn't do crew.
Okay.
So nothing like that has ever been mentioned.
If you ever -- ever were to say anything.
So -- so we just -- so we just have to say,
"we made a donation to your foundation," and that's it.
End of story. That is correct.
Okay. Terrific.
Okay.
Goldberg: Rick is on a roll,
taking down his clients one by one.
There's a payment, obviously, for 50k in April
for us taking -- for your daughter taking the test.
Man as huneeus: Yeah, I remember.
The reason that rick singer was so easily
able to get his clients to confess is twofold.
One -- a lot of them were entitled
and didn't really see what they were doing as a crime.
What I'm gonna tell them is that you made a 50k donation
to my foundation for underserved kids,
and not that mark riddell
took the test for your daughter or --
dude, dude. What do you think, I'm a moron?
I'm going to say that I've been inspired how
you're helping underprivileged kids get into college.
Totally got it.
And two -- because rick is talented at manipulating people,
creating false narratives,
and getting people to let their guard down.
Man as isackson: I think we'll definitely pay cash this time.
Goldberg: The feds are blown away by the sheer number of parents
who tried to bribe their kids' way into college
and by how many coaches
and college administrators
took those bribes.
Rick's con had spread like wildfire,
and now everyone involved is really gonna feel the heat,
because the fbi is going public with operation varsity blues.
[ helicopter blades whirring ]
levitz: On March 12, 2019,
more than 30 parents get charged.
So, like, just in l.A., they had 13 homes to go to.
They planned to do all these arrests
very early in the morning --
house by house, banged on the door.
It was quite a shock to the parents.
Most of them were asleep.
The parents were arrested all around the country.
Levitz: They were cuffed.
They were brought down to federal lockup.
It's possible some of them knew why they were there,
but others didn't know what they all had in common.
And a curious thing started to happen,
which is some of the parents began to recognize one another.
And then, at one point, one of the coaches said,
"do you guys know rick singer?"
and their mouths just dropped opened,
and it clicked why they were there.
Goldberg: But guess who's not there.
Rick singer!
He's out on bail down in sunny florida,
which andrew jenks saw as an opportunity.
I was trying to delve not just into the scheme,
but also into the mind-set rick singer had.
If that's where he was last spotted,
why don't I go down there and try and find him
and ask him questions?
Goldberg: So andrew jenks tracks rick down...
Jenks: That's our guy.
...To see if he has any, you know, liar's remorse.
Rick, if you could change one decision in your life,
what would it be?
♪
goldberg: In March of 2019,
news of the college admissions scandal goes nationwide.
Announcer: This is "good morning america."
good morning, america.
All the latest now on that massive scheme --
rich and famous parents cheat their kids into college.
Woman: [ screams ] lori, we love you!
Hi.
Goldberg: Rick singer's clients have been charged
and are awaiting their court dates.
These individuals are not thought to commit crimes.
Woman: Love you! You're so beautiful! Oh, thank you!
Man: Lori, are you gonna fight these charges? Lori?
I mean, I think about white-collar crime
as a white-privilege matter, right?
In our consciousness,
a white, wealthy person does not commit a crime,
and they don't think of themselves
as committing a crime.
They have a right, because they have the money.
Goldberg: All part of the perks of being the 1% of the 1%.
And sometimes having all that money
gives you a get out of jail free card,
but not this time.
Korn: The first parent to be sentenced was felicity huffman,
and she was sentenced in September.
Would she get jailed? Would they send felicity huffman to prison?
There was this concern that if she didn't get prison time,
it just went to show
that rich people got off easy.
I was inside when felicity huffman
was set to appear,
and she just looked really pale.
She looked sad.
She very well could have been acting, obviously,
but there did seem to be some signs of contrition
as she teared up when she was talking.
Korn: She was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison,
and there were gasps in the room.
People were shocked.
And the prosecutor saw this as a big win.
Goldberg: Huffman pleads guilty.
She's sentenced to two weeks in prison,
250 hours of community service,
and is slapped with a $30,000 fine.
Reporter: Jail time for another parent
caught up in the varsity blues college admissions scandal.
Goldberg: Felicity's pal jane buckingham also pleads guilty
and gets 21 days in prison and a $40,000 fine.
Gordon caplan, the big-time lawyer, is sentenced also.
I'm truly sorry.
One month in prison, 250 hours of community service,
and a $50,000 fine.
Lori loughlin and her husband, mossimo,
initially plead not guilty,
but after more than a year, change that plea to guilty.
Actress lori loughlin was sentenced
to two months in federal prison today --
her husband, mossimo giannulli, sentenced to five months.
The couple also fined $400,000,
the judge telling loughlin he was dumbfounded by her actions.
Goldberg: As for olivia jade, she stopped posting on social media
after her parents' arrest,
before finally updating her followers.
Obviously, I've been gone for a really long time,
but the reason for that is just 'cause
I'm legally not allowed to speak on anything going on right now.
Goldberg: Olivia jade and her sister were never implicated in the crime.
They are no longer enrolled at usc,
and olivia jade's gotten a lot of backlash on social media.
Mosley: I know a lot of people get upset
when they think about olivia jade.
I try not to demonize these kids.
They're young, and unfortunately,
their parents made a mistake that they, too, have to pay for.
Muir: The alleged mastermind, william singer, pleading guilty.
Federal prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing.
We don't yet know what singer will be sentenced to.
He will be sentenced likely after everyone else.
Goldberg: Rick faces up to 65 years in prison,
but it's possible that his cooperation with the feds
can spring him out early.
Man: How about all the students that were qualified
and were cheated out of a spot?
We have no comment.
But the college counselor
who had suspicions about rick early on
has something to say about what his punishment should be.
Rick singer, I hope you rot in prison.
You had kids lie.
You made kids, perhaps innocent kids,
not so innocent anymore
by encouraging them to do unethical activity.
You crossed the line, and you deserve every punishment
that I hope you get.
Goldberg: Rick is out on a $500,000 bond
and is still waiting to be sentenced.
He's a con man. Rick singer is really just a con man.
He wanted to make a lot of money,
so he took advantage of the system.
Jenks: Is the system broken?
Any comment on anything?
You seem pretty comfortable.
When I tracked down rick, he is very casual --
shirt off, backwards hat, almost taking his time --
which led me to start to wonder,
"does this guy want the attention?"
did any good come out of this, rick?
You seem like you're comfortable.
You're taking your time here.
Did you really work with over 700 families?
Rick, is the system broken?
♪
unfortunately, what rick singer is doing
is he's conning students
who deserve to go to these schools.
Another student who's worked really hard to go
is getting a rejection letter.
Mosley: When stuff like this happens,
those kids are robbed of opportunities.
They're the real victims of this.
Goldberg: Young people robbed of their hopes and dreams,
colleges and universities exposed,
and our trust in higher education
perhaps forever tainted --
all because of a young kid with a big chip on his shoulder
and the privileged few who preach one thing
and practice something completely different.
Which leads us to some sage advice from lori loughlin,
here in an interview with "page six,"
the same year she cheated her daughter's way into school.
We were never those parents.
We were always like, "you know what?
Give it your all. Do the best you can."
'cause in life, if you give it your all
and you do the best you can, that's it.
That's all you can do. And that's enough.