Varsity Blues: The $25 Million College Admissions Scandal with Chris Burns and Sarah Tiana | 70

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Olivia Jade is having a super hard time at school.

It's like really hard.

It's her first semester at USC and it actually sucks.

Her parents made her apply.

They're really big deals, but they never went to college themselves, so they were obsessed with Olivia going.

Oh, you don't know who Olivia's parents are?

That's weird.

They're the glam actress Lori Laughlin from Full House and super cool fashion designer Massimo Giannuli.

They're great.

They're rich, but

college is meh.

On the DL, instead of studying, Olivia would rather be making content for her YouTube channel right now.

It's got over a million subscribers.

You should totally check it out.

But for now, instead of creating content, she has to pretend to be this fake go-getter smart person.

But wait, can you keep a secret?

She shouldn't even be here.

Her parents paid half a million dollars for this college counselor to get her in, along with her sister.

Ugh, maybe Olivia can just get used to it.

Maybe college is like this for everyone.

At the moment, it feels like prison.

Hopefully, Olivia's parents won't end up there, right?

LOL, JK, JK, JK.

No, but seriously, they won't,

right?

Operation Varsity Blues.

A conspiracy to fraud in the athletic field in a college setting.

Giving 10 million makes no impact on their school.

They want 30, 40, 50 million Hollywood elites behind bars.

We

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From Wondery and at Well Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time.

I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and college dropout at Don't Cross a Gay Man.

And today, we're talking about Operation Varsity Blues, the true story of a failed basketball coach who gamed the college admission system.

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Now on our show today, we have a comedian and host of the podcasts, Middle Children and Netflix's.

We have the receipts.

It's Chris Burns.

Welcome, Chris.

Hi.

Thank you for having me.

I'm very excited.

Me too.

And returning to the show, you might remember her from our Chris Gaines episode.

We have a writer writer and an amazing comedian it's sarah tiana hi bestie hi so good to see you again thanks for having me so chris did you go to college uh i did go to college i went to sunyoneonta okay sunny me too which one what fredonia okay tomato tomato honestly um i went to college but i feel like it was because like that's just what you know you had to do

unfortunately sarah did you have to write a college essay?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I started at the University of Georgia.

It was really tough school to get into, and I didn't have the SE SA SET.

I was like, I don't have, I didn't have the SEC scores to get in.

SAT.

That tells you how I should not have been let in.

But then I did write a letter that said, you know, four years of high school should be more important than four hours of a test.

And

somehow I got in.

Amazing.

Well, our story today follows william rick singer who became the go-to college counselor for the elite now he used his insider knowledge of college athletics to create a complicated network of admissions fraud creating a shady path for lackluster students with powerful parents And once it all came crashing down, dozens of families were indicted and lots of spoiled teens became even more embarrassed by their fussy parents.

Now, Now, Singer is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a tracksuit.

Even long after he stops teaching sports and switches over to college counseling, he still thinks of himself as a coach and dresses like one.

I bet he made everybody call him coach, even in the office.

Rick was a child of divorced parents, and he struggles for a few years.

Depending on when they've met him, people describe two different Ricks.

He starts out life as a big-haired, stocky, insecure kid.

But by high school, he exudes charm, is well-liked and admired by his peers, and is super into sports, playing baseball and football.

And a former classmate calls him very, very engaging.

How would a former schoolmate describe you?

I won biggest brown noser in high school.

I,

yeah, that's how they would describe me.

I was pretty much like a shell.

I feel like I was just trying to power through.

So I'm not sure if there'd be a whole lot to be said, honestly.

Oh, that's not true.

I bet there's lovely things to say about you.

No, I mean, yeah, I don't think it would be anything too interesting, though.

I was just like everybody's friend, and including the teachers.

What I'm gathering is just that Sarah was incredibly popular.

She's like, I was all so beautiful.

She was like, and

I was prom queen, which was awful.

I just was friends with everybody.

I was not prom queen or homecoming queen or like

a big fan of dresses.

So that tells you.

See, I was, and there was the problem.

Well, by graduation, Singer's really proud of himself.

In his yearbook, he writes, I would most like to be remembered for the outstanding personality I have been given and being able to get along with others.

Wow.

Sound familiar, Sarah?

I did not write that.

It sounds like maybe he was peaking a little early.

Well, you might be onto something because then he loses steam.

It takes him about eight years to graduate college, and he's not sure what he wants to do with his life.

Eight years?

Was he a doctor?

No, just flouncing around from major to major, I'm assuming.

But he is competitive, so he does want to win.

So Singer enters the job market in the late 80s, aka the greed is good era.

So maybe that's why he juggles as many jobs as possible, but he's still trying to figure out his calling.

So he starts coaching at a community college near Sacramento.

He starts to experiment with training techniques like using strobe lights and buzzers to improve reaction times in the players.

And he also starts creating profiles of student athletes complete with video, which was super rare at the time,

to try to get them scholarships.

So simultaneously, he coaches basketball at a nearby high school.

So finally, Singer can make up for lost time and be the best coach.

But not so fast.

Because Singer is let go by the principal just three weeks in.

Uh-oh.

What?

What did he do?

Red flag.

Mm-hmm.

Well, supposedly, parents complained about singers' feverish sideline antics and abusive manner toward officials.

Love it.

Yeah.

You can't let your kids like yell at officials.

So, like, if the coach is doing that, then it's like, all right, this guy is not a leader.

Yeah.

Strobe lights is also like the most bizarre technique.

Like, they could have had seizures.

I know.

I'm also like, are they practicing at night?

Like, can't you see it?

Just turn all the gymnasium lights off.

It's like a party.

That's just you like grasping at straws for like a coaching technique and like hoping it pays off, but it doesn't.

Yeah.

Well, despite the parents' outrage, the players, the students, they take Singer's side and they boycott their first game after he's fired.

What?

Weird.

So they loved him.

But Singer, as he does.

often he rebounds and he finds another job right away at Sacramento State.

He gets married, buys a house, gets a master's degree, and even has his own kid.

How long did it take him to get a master's degree?

The kid was 20 by the time he finished.

Also, all of this, I'm like, got a master's degree.

Like we know where this story eventually ends up.

So I'm like, how much cheating was this man doing along the way for himself?

But now he has all these things.

He has a wife, he has a kid, so now he has another chance to be a success.

And he needs to pull this off.

Because as your friends with kids might tell you, adulting costs money.

So Singer Singer expands upon his idea of making profiles for student athletes and founds a company dedicated to private college counseling.

It's called Future Stars and it's poised to put Singer at the top of the college admissions pyramid.

But unfortunately, he doesn't like running the business, so he sells it and pivots.

He spends a decade in a call center management instead.

That is a severe left tarp.

Imagine being one of his coworkers with the man that's constantly talking about how he sold his business after getting a master's and he could be doing anything else for 10 years.

Wearing a tracksuit.

Yeah.

What?

Also, calling your company future stars.

Like, how did he even sell that?

That's maybe the worst name.

Like, it sounds like a child acting agency.

Child pageant.

Yeah.

Future stars.

Like,

that's a little on the nose.

Yeah.

You know, those agencies that go around to like mid-level hotels promising to make you models and actors?

That's what that's giving to me, that name.

Well, in 2002, Singer sees another opportunity.

College admissions is becoming extremely competitive and counseling is booming, especially test prep.

This is it.

It's his chance to be top dog of admissions.

So Singer founds the College Source LLC and works with online high schools to offer college prep.

And he knows what he's doing because he finished college in 27 years.

Yeah.

Slowly but surely, Singer's network starts expanding.

The more people he helps, the more people he's introduced to who can help him.

So he claims to sell his interest in College Source LLC for a ridiculous amount of money to Kaplan, but it's not clear whether that's true.

Either way, in 2007, Singer founds the edge college and career network llc nicknamed the key and gets back to doing what he does best advising student athletes on getting into top schools why do you think he calls it the key

like because it is the key to get in yeah that's what i would think yeah Listen, I'll say the names have been getting progressively better with each company.

The key sort of sounds like, what was the cult that...

A swinger party.

Oh, you're right.

It does.

it sounds like a sex club well singer he was thinking it's because he's opening doors to college bound kids

wow i did not even go there which tells you i did not deserve to get into college

yeah i mean he thinks that the front door is merit-based using good grades top test scores letters of recommendation impressive hobbies etc etc and the back door is what only the ultra rich can do like buy a wing of a building which which can cost $10 to $50 million.

And according to Singer, isn't even a guarantee of acceptance.

Yeah, right.

Wait, the back door, I'm already obsessed.

That should have been the name of his.

That should have been the name of his.

I'm also obsessed with people that could afford that not knowing that.

You know what I mean?

I'm like, don't rich people automatically know, like, I can donate a library to get my kid into Yale?

Right.

Here's my checkbook.

They should know.

But he has an excellent third option, which is his special side door.

And it's very cost-effective, folks.

For a measly grand, Singer can make your dreams of living vicariously through your kids come true.

We'll explain how in just a minute, but around 2011, the business really takes off, and it happens to coincide with Singer's divorce from his wife, Allison.

The reason?

Irreconcilable differences.

Allison was smelling what was going on.

The back door.

That's the reason.

But here's a little tidbit we found that I found interesting.

Despite Singer claiming he's making over $300,000 a year, his wife, who's listed as an advisor for his business, only makes $2,400.

She isn't implicated for any wrongdoings.

A year?

Yeah.

So maybe that has something to do with it.

I would say so.

Yeah.

That's not even like close to any alimony.

No.

No.

So as a result, Singer has to give up his $700,000 Sacramento home as well as a villa in Hawaii that's worth $600,000.

Damn.

He agrees to pay $3,000 a month in child support and sets up an $80,000 college fund for his son.

He even has to give up his $19.99 Nissan.

Oh, no, not the Nissan.

Not the Nissan.

Not the Altima.

Not the Nissan that still needs the key.

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So Allison really cleans him out.

Good for you, girl.

Good girl.

Yeah, I love that.

And we can assume the divorce hits him pretty hard since his parents separated and it took Singer a while to reinvent himself after that.

So now that Singer's on his own again, he enters what we'll call a rebuilding phase, i.e.

going hog wild on fraud.

So he goes around to wealthy parents and guarantees them that he can gain entry for their kids to USC, UCLA, Georgetown, Stanford, Harvard, Northwestern.

You get it?

So how do you think he accomplishes that?

In a track suit.

Did he get all the track suits in a divorce?

I hope so.

I hope so.

Yeah, I just thought that he was like creating an athletic scholarship for like lesser known, you know, like not everybody's on the rowing team.

So there's maybe a slot for you on the rowing team.

And that's how we get you into a big school.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

There's a lot of different ways he approaches this, but the overall thing that we're trying to get at is he lies.

It's just all lies.

So here's how it works.

One side of Singer's strategy is, of course, test scores, right?

You can't really fake a grade point average, but Singer figures out how to cheat on the ACT and SAT exams.

Maybe that SEC exam.

Yeah.

SET exam is way harder.

Way harder.

Yeah.

You can't cheat on that.

I can't imagine any of these people were actually writing extensive essays.

Yeah, they certainly weren't writing their own entrance essays, right?

Probably not.

No.

Well, Singer, he skips all the test prep BS.

He just buys good test scores.

No.

Yes.

How do you do that?

Yeah.

Well, I have the answer.

He pays a corrupt psychologist $4,000 to $5,000 to falsely diagnose students with learning disabilities.

That way, those students will have more time to take the test.

So for some kids, that's enough to gain an advantage, but there's more.

Once the test taker finishes their exam, the proctor proctor in the room can enhance the answers, aka fix them.

That'll cost about 10 grand.

So for this cheat to work, kids have to be alone with the proctors, no witnesses.

Not to worry.

Singer has contacts at certain testing centers in West Hollywood and Houston.

So all the parents have to do is make fake travel plans so their kids are placed there.

Bingo bongo, these kids have aced their entrance exams.

Oh my word.

So he has a lot of people working for him.

I wish my parents cared about me this much that they would do that for me.

Right, I know.

My dad's like a flight to Sacramento.

No.

No, thanks.

I'm sorry.

Now, to add to that web that you were talking about, Sarah, the testing stuff is fascinating, but really the bread and butter is athletics.

So Singer makes it his business to know coaches and recruiters in several prestigious colleges and feeder schools, including the sailing coach at Stanford, Yale's women soccer coach, and an assistant athletic director at USC.

Singer simply bribes these people to either look the other way or to actually claim that certain students excel at sports they've probably never even played.

So it's apparently not that hard to falsify an athletic profile.

You just make one up.

Because wasn't that like with the Olivia Jade of it all, the like Lori Laughlin's daughter?

I think she was, there was like video of her on a rowing machine

was like the thing.

Yeah, so I mean, he would literally Photoshop a kid's head onto an actual athlete and submit that to a recruiter who's in his pocket.

Now, since these kids are minors, we can't show you the photos, but what athlete's body would you most want your head photoshopped on?

Oh my God, there's so many.

Yeah.

Lance Armstrong.

Yeah, Kelsey Plum.

She's got a really really hot bot.

She's plays for the WNBA.

I'd probably do her.

Yeah.

Who is the guy that remember the guy in the Olympics that had the big package that couldn't get over the

French pole ball team?

Emirati.

Emirati.

Yeah.

I feel like that'd be good rumors to have.

Once the kids are in the schools, they can just quit the teams.

Like Singer tries to minimize exposure by picking less competitive sports like tennis, lacrosse, water polo.

Sorry to anybody who plays those sports out there.

But men's basketball or football, it's trickier, but not impossible.

No.

Either way, it is expensive.

We're talking $100,000 for a recruit to the University of Texas tennis team, $250,000 for the USC water polo team, and $450,000 for the Yale soccer team.

Oh my God.

Yeah, I mean, I guess like a, oh, wow, like an Ivy League school is for sure.

But like, I can't even imagine wanting my kid to go to that college like that.

Cause that's really just the parents so that they can brag and go, oh, my son goes to Yale.

But do you say Texas Tech?

Like, who is dying to get their kid into Texas Tech?

For $250,000?

I would think that Texas Tech would be like, you could just give us the $250,000 and we'll just hand you a diploma.

I bet there were like admissions people that were like, damn, you could have just been coming directly to us.

Yeah.

So now that he has the money how do you think he's laundering that money oh he has to launder it oh through his little um

the key the key

yes or through his alimony payments to his wife yeah

well around 2012 singer founds the key worldwide foundation a mostly fake charity organization that did do some philanthropic work.

For example, the Key Foundation organizes trips for underserved kids to spend a week at college, you know, show them the good life, something to strive for.

Yeah, that they won't be able to afford or have.

I would rather go to Disney.

Why do I want to go see

to college for a week?

It's also like, what kind of charity is that?

Like, yeah, like, what, what exactly is that accomplishing to show them a week out of college?

Like, also a bit ironic since he's like stealing spots at schools away from normal kids.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, obviously, it's all just to like do enough, I guess, to seem less sketchy.

Yeah.

Well, the other way he's funneling this money through is the parents are donating

and ostensibly getting a tax deduction for doing so, anywhere from $10,000 to $400,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation.

Yeah.

Fun fact about a charity, you only have to use 10% of the funds legally towards the charity itself.

The other 90% you can pocket.

Yeah.

Crazy.

So Singer then takes some of that money and writes checks directly from the foundation to various experts in a position to hold open that side door.

Now, some are direct payments for services, bribes.

Other payments are donations from the key foundation to the schools themselves.

Administrators and fancy colleges gladly cash these checks.

Well, Singer truly believes he's giving everyone what they they want that's of course including himself the athletic programs get big donations the parents and kids get to live their collegiate fantasies and singer gets to be the top dog in a field that he basically created it doesn't hurt that he's also getting absurdly rich in the process or that he gets access to the most powerful people in the country powerful people who collectively pay him over 20 million dollars wow for his illicit services it like yeah, I think only affects like the Rory Gilmores of the world that have been like trying so long to get into a college and then don't because the spot was taken.

But yeah, I agree that most

of the people involved, it's just rich people affecting rich people.

Yeah.

So he starts building a nice little investment portfolio, which includes interest in a Welsh soccer team, a Los Angeles Mexican restaurant chain, and Blue Sky Partnership.

Oh, wow.

His ex-con brother, who was nabbed for drug trafficking, even helps him choose where to put his money.

Okay.

He should run for president.

Yeah.

He buys up some choice property too, like a luxurious home in Newport Beach, California.

Take that, Allison.

Hope that shack in Hawaii is nice and cozy.

And everyone knows that crime always pays and never backfires.

No,

no, nobody ever gets caught.

So, Singer becomes a fixture among well-connected Hollywood types.

The elites are flocking to this dude to get their little ones into college.

So, he's doing a lot of networking.

And to find out exactly which hobs he's knobbing, let's play a game.

Okay.

Singer becomes friends with dozens of celebrities and big deals.

So, I'm going to ask you some trivia questions.

And whoever gets the most points gets to feel really smug for the rest of the episode.

Party.

Party.

First question.

Singer helps two daughters of fashion designer Massimo Giannouli and actress Lori Laughlin get into USC for half a million dollars.

What show is Lori Laughlin best known for?

Full House.

Oh, Full House.

Oh, it was right away.

I said it first.

I'm smug.

Yeah, Full House.

She plays Aunt Becky, lover of Uncle Jesse.

Remember, Massimo was like all the clothes at Target for a long time.

Forever.

Those Massimo jeans.

I like, yeah, I think I lived in those.

I remember finding out that that was who that was.

And I was like, good for Lori Laughlin.

I didn't know that she had married into like.

I didn't recognize your game.

Target money.

Target money.

Next question.

Another prominent actress of Desperate Housewives fame pays a much smaller amount, only $15,000, to boost her daughter's SAT scores.

Hint, she's married to William H.

Macy.

Felicity Huffman.

Oh!

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It is Felicity Huffman.

I remember all the pictures of her in jail.

There were paparazzi pictures of her like milling the yard.

All right.

Last question is: A name that tune.

An heiress to the snack fortune pays singer $100,000 for a proctor to amend her two daughters' ACT exams.

Where does her money come from?

Snack.

Wait, you said that.

I know the way you sang it was very familiar, and I'm trying to play.

Hot pockets.

Oh, you're right.

I can't believe I got that.

Out of the three of us, I've definitely eaten more hot pockets.

I don't know.

Just by y'all's skin, I can tell that I'm more of a hot pocket gal.

I've been off the ham and cheddar for a bit, but I was definitely on the train for a while.

Yeah.

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Well, Singer, either because of his divorce or midlife crisis, gets sort of a big head and decides he deserves a little more attention, just like his famous clients.

Some advice for our listeners who want to commit fraud, don't.

But if you do, lay low or you'll be the topic of one of our episodes.

So, Singer pitches a a reality TV show based on his business.

They love it.

Now, yes.

Now, to his credit, I guess, it's the only above-board part of his business.

He even records a cringy tape as a part of the pitch.

Let's take a look.

Oh, yay.

Oh, my gosh.

This process brings out all the good and a lot of the bad that goes on in families' homes.

The whole time, they're yelling and screaming at each other.

It's my life.

No, if you go to this school, it's the wrong school.

I don't want to pay $50,000 to go to school.

I mean, unbelievable.

The haircut is upsetting.

That's not what I thought he looked like.

And he wasn't in a track suit.

I'm very disappointed.

Well, he's making the video.

He probably dressed up.

He even kind of looked like a Ivy League student.

He had the collared shirt underneath the sweater.

The sweater vest.

The sweater vest.

Yeah.

The sweater vest, that is probably what he was trying to give is like collegiate.

But it's like Jen Shaw from like Real Housewives.

I've always wondered, I'm like, if you knew that you were doing illegal things to make your money for all those years, why would you ever go on a reality show and show off all of that money?

Who knows?

Yeah.

I also don't know what he was pitching.

I don't even understand from that video what the pitch was.

Well, in the pitch, Singer brags about how rich families will fly him out to meetings, that he acts as the family psychologist, and that he knows what these people's bedrooms look like.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

Yeah, I don't think he meant that in a creepy way, but it's still very creepy.

That's a door that should not have been opened with the key.

No, no, that one stays locked.

Now, to further prove he's legit, Singer also publishes two self-help books.

Oh, God.

Okay.

The first one's called Getting In, Gaining Admission to Your College of Choice.

The second one is called Getting in Personal Brands.

A personal brand is essential to gaining admission to the college of your choice.

It just rolls right off of the tongue.

I also love that the first words of chapter one are, this book is full of secrets.

No, it's not because everybody knows them now.

Yeah, Chris, could you please read this abridged excerpt from book one, chapter two, brand yourself?

Oh, I would love to.

Getting into college is a lot like selling iPads or cans of Coca-Cola.

All about branding.

Building your personal brand is all about finding and following your passion.

Whatever you love, whatever you're good at, do it a lot and do it well.

So start a business, make a movie, found a charity, travel the world, build something, invent something, change something, do something.

Your brand depends on you.

That says nothing.

That says nothing.

What the fuck does that mean?

Yeah, that is just...

You know what you should major in?

You should major in psychology or geology or history or athletics or.

Or do sports, yeah.

Yeah, or do sports.

Like, no, no, no, you're, you're my college advisor.

Get a dog.

Do you like animals?

It's just like a rambling.

There's no advice.

All of those things everybody already knows.

Like, yes, get a job.

Apply yourself.

Like,

yeah,

you're not telling me anything I don't know.

So you're telling me this advice is not worth $20?

No.

$20.

No.

No.

No.

Well, to be fair, it doesn't look like the book sells very well.

Oh.

No.

The last time we checked, the books ranked as 205,333rd in self-help on Amazon.

Well, I'm like, if these people are buying their way into college, they're not reading books on how to get into college.

They're not reading books, period.

End of sentence.

He should have just like made it a pro, like, if you want my help, you also have to buy my book yeah i mean singer did kind of take your advice because he would just give them away for free also with 500 worth of his legitimate counseling services oh

so i mean it's actually good that singer's profile is so hard to raise it does protect him for a while because if the secret about the key foundation gets out he's toast

and sure enough in 2017 there was a close call a guidance counselor at a fancy private high school in LA learns that one of her students has been accepted to Tulane, Georgetown, and Loyola Marymount as an African-American top 10 ranked tennis player, despite this student not being a tennis player and being white.

No.

No.

What?

Now, the kid, like most of these students involved, has no idea this has happened.

The guidance counselor confronts the student's parent, but gets nowhere.

The parent is on the school board, so status can be protective and soothing.

And it just so happens this parent got the friends and family discount from Singer.

So no money, no paper trail.

For now, Singer is safe.

Probably because if they're in the school board, too, they know exactly what's going on.

So it's like, do it for my kid or I'm going to blow up your spot.

Yeah.

Singer's luck runs out around 2018 when a businessman named Maury Tobin gets caught pumping and dumping stocks and doing some light securities fraud.

While the FBI investigates Tobin, he casually mentions some random shady stuff that's happened to him.

The head coach of Yale's women's soccer team had offered him a deal.

If he paid the coach $450,000, then Tobin's youngest daughter could get into Yale.

This, of course, piques the FBI's interest.

So they get Tobin to wear wear a wire.

Tobin meets the Yale coach in a Boston hotel to get more information about the scheme.

And using that tape, the FBI brings the Yale coach into the investigation and he leads them straight to Singer's door.

If found guilty, he could be facing up to 65 years in prison and would have to forfeit millions of dollars.

This is Singer, right?

Not the Yale soccer coach.

Yeah.

Singer.

Wow.

So Singer has two choices.

He He can maintain his innocence or he could cooperate, help incriminate his clients and get a reduced sentence.

I wonder why he did.

The track suit seems to imply he will in fact cooperate.

Yes.

Yes.

Unfortunately for a ton of big fancy rich people, he does choose the latter.

He's a scammer.

Of course, he's going to scam his way out of whatever.

In late of 2018, Singer starts recording his phone calls with clients and wearing a wire to in-person meetings.

And to get these poor, unsuspecting saps to admit their part in the scheme, he tells some of the parents that the IRS is auditing his foundation and gets them to agree to not mention their bribes to the college coaches.

But along the way, he's still doing some favors for friends, favors that will come back to haunt him.

But for now, he's just being a good buddy.

I mean, he's a frogster, not a bad friend.

He tips off at least six of his clients so they can get their affairs in order, and he deletes some incriminating text to protect them.

What's the biggest sacrifice you would make for a friend?

Well, it depends on the friend.

Yeah.

There are friends I'd probably go to jail for for a little bit, but

like I'm not going away for 65 years for any of these hoes.

No.

65 years.

Yes.

I'm not going to.

Yeah, there's no way.

It's also like for this, I'm like, no, bitch, you made your bet and you're lying in it.

You're bribing people.

It's not like you're doing something defendable.

Yeah, I'm not gonna like take a package across the border for you or anything.

You know what I mean?

Well, in March of 2019, Singer officially pleads guilty and starts naming names.

His indictment alleges that his clients paid him a total of $25 million.

$7 million of that was spent on bribes to those test proctors and athletic recruiters, and $15 million is what he kept, buying property and fun stuff for himself.

Damn.

Now, unfortunately, after his guilty plea, Singer must forfeit all of his ill-gotten gains and give up all his fancy houses.

Over $10 million must be paid to the IRS.

So that's $3.4 million that needs to be handed over, as well as a $5.3 million worth of assets like his investment portfolio.

While he's on bail, he moves into a trailer home for senior citizens in St.

Petersburg, Florida.

It's like giving Rudy Giuliani.

Yeah.

Allison really got the last laugh here.

Yeah.

And hanging over him is his sentencing.

He still could get up to 65 years, and it all depends on how useful he's been to the feds and how lenient the judge is feeling.

Now, perhaps the biggest indignity is learning that there are other Rick Singers in Europe working with the same scheme with one of his corrupt coaches.

No, he wasn't the only one.

I bet there still is.

Oh, yeah.

Speaking of coaches, singers' clients and associates are dragged through the mud.

On the recruiting side, a well-heeled tennis coach named Gorded Ernst gets two and a half years in prison.

He's from Georgetown U, and fun fact, coached the Obamas in tennis.

Oh, wow.

A former MLS player and head soccer coach at UCLA gets caught, as do the USC coaches for men's and women's water polo, women's soccer, and even one of their athletic directors.

But it's the parents who make all of the headlines because some of them, like I've mentioned, are famous, especially Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin, who both end up serving prison time for their involvement.

Huffman, who paid a few measly grand for a shady proctor, gets two weeks behind bars.

And Laughlin, who spent half a million dollars, gets two months.

Half a million dollars.

Those hallmarks must really be paying out.

They got two weeks to two months, and the recruiter got two and a half years.

So other people feel the same.

Yeah, I think the recruiters are the ones that are like the real POSs.

Yeah.

I wonder why the husbands didn't get anything.

Because they never know what they're doing.

No, they're not involved in their children's lives.

Husbands don't even know.

They're just like, do we have any plans tonight?

And it's like, yeah, it's our son's choir concert that I've been telling you about.

Okay.

It's Olivia's water polo game.

Don't you remember?

She's been playing for years.

Well, in addition to prison time, the two actresses lose out on paid work in the biz.

Whoever said there's no such thing as bad PR is, well, very wrong.

Huffman ends up not working from 2019 to 2023.

Oh my gosh.

Laughlin loses her deal with the Hallmark channel, and Netflix cuts her from the Full House reboot, Fuller House.

I can't, I didn't watch Fuller House.

Well, in both Fuller House and the Hallmark drama, when Calls the Heart, her character disappears to take care of her mother.

You know what I miss when they just replace the actress or the actor?

Like, remember on Family Matters, Fresh Friends?

On both of them, they replaced the mom for a bit.

Also, on Family Matters, there was in the first like three seasons, there's a little sister, and they just eliminate her character, and there's no mention of it.

Oh, yeah.

Becky on Roseanne was like, Yeah, I remember that.

Just like, there's a new Becky.

Hilarious.

Well, so we've been talking about her a little bit, but one of Laughlin's daughters, Olivia Jade, a successful YouTube influencer who had deals lined up with huge brands prior to the scandal, loses her sponsorships with Treseme and Sephora.

How will you live?

I know.

The real tragedy of the world.

The real tragedy.

According to her older social media posts, Olivia J didn't even want to finish high school, but her parents made her go to college.

Exactly.

There you go.

There you go.

Yeah.

Other prominent parents who face repercussions include the author of the Modern Girls Guide to Life book series, the former CEO of MGM Resorts, the former CEO of Pimco, the world's largest bond manager, a former executive of Old Navy and Staples, a Fancy Pants Napa Valley Vineyard owner, the former owner of the CBS affiliate in San Diego, a ton of private equity and investment firm execs, and of course, the hot pockets heiress.

I think it's also really fascinating that like just because your parents worked so hard and like you could be two gung-ho parents who like have made all this money from lots and lots of hard work and then your kid is just like

you don't teach that to your kid you're not like invested enough in their future you just like hope they're nannies like tell them how to do their schoolwork and then why are you shocked when you're not invested in their entire education like you also wonder yeah how much of their wealth the parents wealth came from their parents so like they maybe

also didn't get into college in the most kosher of ways.

So more than 50 people are convicted in the college admissions bribery scandal, but at least one gets off scot-free thanks to some swamp draining.

Oh.

Right before the end of his first term, President Trump wades into the fray, pardoning a Miami real estate developer who was charged with paying $250,000 to get his daughter into USC.

Interesting.

Trump pardons him?

Wow.

I wonder how much money that guy donated to Trump's campaign.

Yeah, I was going to say that.

I bet it was more than $250,000.

So Singer, having lost his friends in high places, hopes he won't need a pardon because he's been extremely cooperative with the feds.

He's one of the last people to be sentenced, and his lawyers beg for leniency.

And he finally gets his sentence in January of 2023.

And despite giving up dozens of people, he does indeed go to prison.

He's sentenced to three and a half years plus three years probation.

Slap on the wrist.

The judge and prosecution agree that although Singer's help was very useful in nabbing all these parents, he did obstruct justice by helping those friends eliminate evidence.

He's also the reason they're all

like.

He spent longer in college than he did.

He was in college longer than he was in prison.

Twice as long.

Twice as long.

Yeah.

So I guess the lesson is that crime doesn't pay unless, of course, you're in Trump's inner circle.

Yeah.

Then it really pays.

So let's do a little, where are they now?

Okay.

Rick Singer, he's already out of prison.

After serving just 16 months.

Sounds right.

Yeah.

He also didn't even have a terrible time while he was there.

He spent part of his sentence in a Pensacola facility working at the fitness center and coordinating activities like pickleball.

He got them all scholarships.

Track suits.

Yeah, track suits.

He also taught entrepreneurialship classes.

In prison?

In prison.

And now, well, he's ready to get back into the college admissions business.

Seriously.

He says he's laying the groundwork for a legitimate version of what he was doing.

His new company is called ID Future Stars, and he promises to charge reasonable fees for above-board services.

Time will tell.

The name is a flop.

Like, the naming is so bad.

Yeah.

How is he even allowed to still be a part of that?

Like, I can't believe that that wasn't a condition of his release.

I know, because it normally is.

Maybe the judge's child is hitting college age.

Yeah, maybe.

Now, Singer says he most regrets the test cheating portion of of his scheme.

Huge bribes?

Not so much, I guess.

While here on the big flop, we try to be positive people and end on a high.

So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about from Rick Singer and the Varsity Blues scandal?

I would argue that for the children of Lori Laughlin, it pushed them up an echelon in like a famous influencer world.

And I mean, I literally was just looking at pictures of them on vacation in the like Italian Riviera with Jacob Alordi on their yacht.

And Felicity Hoffman, I think, was in a Ryan Murphy show that just came out.

Listen, Ryan Murphy, I'm surprised, hasn't sunk his teeth into more than half of these people.

Oh, yeah.

You know, his mouth salivates every time a hot person goes to jail.

Uh-huh.

I think for me, the silver lining is that like USC before this scandal was like known for corruption with football players and Reggie Bush?

And I'm such a huge college football fan and I love Reggie Bush.

So I think the silver lining is that now when people think of USC, they think of this scandal and not his scandal.

Well, that's nice.

I like that one.

Yeah, I was thinking that, I mean, like, it's not like we needed to be told that children of wealthy and powerful people have it a little or sometimes a lot easier, but I guess being reminded is good.

It just keeps us on our toes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, now that you both know about Rick Singer and Operation Varsity Blues, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop?

I mean, I think it's a mega flop.

People went to prison.

I'm going to go with big flop because I feel like it could have been worse.

Three years isn't that bad, and nobody really went away for that long.

Yeah, that's true.

And I bet it's happening as we speak.

I know.

Of course it is.

Of course it is.

They're just getting smarter.

They're just getting smarter at hiding it.

Well, thank you so much to our guests, Chris Burns and Sarah Tiana, for joining us here on The Big Flop.

And of course, thanks to all of you for listening.

If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review.

We'll be back next week with another flop.

Can anyone spot me 500 bucks?

I really need my favorite housewife to sing happy birthday to me.

That's right, it's Cameo.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

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The Mig Flop is a production of Wondery and At Will Media, hosted by Nisha Brown, produced by Sequoia Thomas, Harry Huggins, and Tina Turner.

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On Boxing Day 2018, 20-year-old Joy Morgan was last seen at her church, Israel United in Christ, or IUIC.

I just went on my Snapchat and I just see her face plastered everywhere.

This is The Missing Sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most.

IUIC is my family and like the best family that I've ever had.

But IUIC isn't like most churches.

This is a devilish cult.

You know when you get that feeling where you're just, I don't want to be here.

I want to get out.

It's like that feeling of, like, I want to go hang out.

I'm Charlie Brentcoast Cuff and after years of investigating Joy's case, I need know what really happened to Joy.

Binge all episodes of The Missing Sister exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.

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