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

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Rick Singer went from failed basketball coach to college admissions kingpin, engineering a $25 million scheme that had the rich and famous buying their kids' way into elite schools. From Aunt Becky to the Hot Pockets Heiress, this smooth-talking grifter exposed the dark underbelly of elite education. That is, until he brought down some of America's most privileged in the process. Chris Burns (fatcarriebradshaw) and Sarah Tiana (Comedy Store) join Misha to do a play-by-play of Operation Varsity Blues, A.K.A. the College Admissions Scandal. Follow The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to The Big Flop on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-big-flop/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before we dive into today's tale of catastrophe, I have to tell you about Wondery+. If you're someone who craves the juicy details behind the biggest flops, Wondery+, is exactly what you need. Add free episodes and early access to new stories that will take you even deeper into the world of business blunders. Trust me, it's a game changer. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcast. 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 Loughlin from Full House and super cool fashion designer Massimo Giannulli. 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. 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 are on a sinking ship From Wondery and Atwill 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. -♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, 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 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? I did go to college. I went to SUNY Oneonta.

OK, SUNY Me Too. Which one? Fredonia. OK, tomato, tomato. Yeah, I went to college, but I feel like it was because that's just what 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 SCET. I was like, 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, Singer is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a tracksuit. BOTH LAUGH 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 Rick's. 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, including the teachers. What I'm gathering is just that Sarah was incredibly popular. Yeah. I wasn't.

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. Yeah.

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? (*LAUGHTER*)

I did not write that. (*LAUGHTER*) It sounds like maybe he was peeking a little early. Mmm. Well, you might be onto something, Yeah. It sounds like maybe he was peeking a little early. Mm. Well, you might be onto something, because then he loses steam. Ooh. 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, sidelined antics and abusive manner toward officials. Mm. Love it.

Yeah. You can't let your kids yell at officials, so if the coach is doing that, then it's like, all right, this guy is not a leader. Yeah. Strobelights is also the most bizarre technique. They could have had seizures. I know. I'm also like, are they practicing at night?

Like, do 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? Yeah, 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 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 turn. Imagine being one of his coworkers with the man that's constantly talking about how he sold his business after getting a master's. 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, 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 found 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 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. 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 through this program. Yeah, I mean, he thinks that the front door is merit-based, using good grades, top test scores, letters of recommendation, impressive hobbies, et cetera, et cetera.

And the back door is what only the ultra-rich can do. Like, buy a wing of a building, 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 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. Mm hmm. 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 grand 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. Hmm. Hmm. So, maybe that has something to do with it. I would say so. Yeah. That's not even like close to any alimony. 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 1999 Nissan. No, not the Nissan.

Not the Nissan. Not the Altima. Not the Nissan that still needs the key. Oh, man. 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? How do you think he accomplishes that? In a tracksuit? Did he get all the tracksuits and the divorce? I hope so.

I hope so. Yeah. I just thought that he was creating an athletic scholarship for lesser known 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. SEC 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 four to five thousand dollars 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 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. Mm-hmm. 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 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's 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 Loughlin's daughter?

I think she was, there was like video of her on a rowing machine. -♪ BOTH LAUGHINGa 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 hot bod. She 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... Yeah, the French pole balter. Yeah. 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, I mean, I guess like a wow, like an Ivy League schools for sure. But like, I can't even imagine wanting my kid to go to that college like that, because 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. Yeah, 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... The key? The key. Mmm, yes. Or through his alimony payments to his wife. Yeah.

Well, around 2012, Singer found 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 college for a week? It's also like, what kind of charity is that? Like, yeah, like, what exactly is that accomplishing to show them a week at a college? Like...

Also a bit ironic since he's like stealing spots at schools away from normal kids. 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 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 who collectively pay him over $20 million for his illicit services. It like, yeah, I think only affects like the, yeah, the Rory Gilmours 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 and whole lot 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 Hobbs he's knobbing, let's play a game. Okay. Okay. Oh.

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 Giannulli and actress Lori Loughlin get into USC for half a million dollars.

What show is Lori Loughlin 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 Mossimo 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. 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 was paparazzi pictures of her like milling the yard. All right. Last question is a name that tune. And Eris 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 it... I know the way you sang it was very familiar, and I'm trying to place it... Hot pockets.

Oh, you're right. Oh, man! 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 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. 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 reality TV show based on his business. They love it. No. 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 unbelievable. Ay. The haircut is upsetting. That's not what I thought he looked like. And he wasn't in a tracksuit. I'm very disappointed. Well, he's making the video. He probably dressed up. He even kind of looks like a Ivy League student. He had the collared shirt underneath the sweater. The sweater vest. The sweater vest, that is probably what he was trying to give, is like, collegiate.

But it's like Jen Shaw from 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 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 published his 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.

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. 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. No, no, you're my college advisor. Get a dog. Do you like animals?

It's just like a rambling. It'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. To be fair, it doesn't look like the book sells very well. Oh. No. The last time we checked, the books ranked as 205,333 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 made it a pro... Like, if you want my help, you also have to buy into college. They're not reading books. Period. End of sentence. He should have just 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. Okay. 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 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 Club. Yeah, Singer. Wow. So Singer has two choices.

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

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. 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 fraudster, 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 texts to protect them. Mm. What's the biggest sacrifice you would make for a friend? Well, it depends on the friend. 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 hosts.

No. 65 years, yes. I'm not gonna... 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.

Seven 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. Ah. 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. 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 Ertst

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 Loughlin, 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 Loughlin, who spent half a million dollars, gets two months. Mm-hmm. 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. Yes. Husbands don't even know. They're just like, do we have any plans tonight? It's like, yeah, it's our son's choir concert that I've been telling you about.

Oh, 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 from the Full House reboot Fuller House. I can't, I didn't watch Fuller House. No. 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, -"Yep, 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 Tressamay and Sephora. Oh, how will you live? I know. The real tragedy of this whole thing. The real tragedy. According to her older social media posts,

Olivia Jade 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 just because your parents worked so hard and you could be two gung-ho parents who 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 invested enough in their future. You just hope their nannies tell them how to do their schoolwork.

And then why are you shocked when you're not invested in their entire education? You also wonder, yeah, how much of their wealth, the parents' wealth came from their parents. So 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? Mm-hmm. Wow. I wonder how much money that guy donated to Trump's campaign. Yeah, I was gonna say, what did he... I bet it was more than $250,000. Oh, yeah. 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.

Yeah. 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. Ooh. Rick Singer, he's already out of prison.

Mm-mm. Mm-mm. 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 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. And track suits. Yeah, and track suits. He also taught entrepreneurship classes. In prison? In prison. Hmm. in a ship 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 was in 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 his scheme. Huge bribes? Not so much, I guess. Well, 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 Loughlin, 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 Elordi on their yacht. And Felicity Huffman, 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. You know his mouth salivates every time a hot person goes to jail. I think for me, the silver lining is that like USC before the 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. Oh, 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. That is good. You don't keep 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, like people into prison. I'm gonna 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. Oh. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. If you like the big flop, you can listen early and ad free on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. The Big Flop is a production of Wondery and At Will Media, hosted by Misha Brown, produced by Sequoia Thomas, Harry Huggins, and Tina Turner, written by Anna Rubinova and Luke Burns, engineered by Zach Rapone, with support from Andrew Holzberger.

Managing producer is Molly Getman. Executive producers are Kate Walsh and Will Mulnoty for At Will Media. Legal support by Carolyn Levin of Miller, Korzenik, Summers and Raymond. Producers for Wondery are Adam Azarath and Matt Beagle. Managing producer is Sarah Mathis and the senior managing producer is Callum Pluse. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesong Sync. Theme song is Sinking Ship by Kick. Executive producers are Lizzy Bassett, Dave Easton and Marshall Louie for Wondery. wondering. So, get this, the Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader.

Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah, check out her record as mayor. Oh get out of here. She even increased taxes in this economy.

Yeah, higher taxes, carbon taxes, she sounds expensive. Bonnie Cromby and the Ontario Liberals. They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party.