← Scamfluencers
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- [00:00]
Sarah Hagie
Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of Scamflancers. But this week we've been informed it's college acceptance season. We mostly experience that as viral videos of children opening emails. Then they either go ballistic with their parents or suffer a life damaging hit to their self worth. Fun. We thought it was a perfect time to revisit the man behind Operation Varsity Blues. Rick Singer.
- [00:33]
Sachi Kol
Ah, yes, the admissions consultant who masterminded a nationwide bribery scheme that funneled wealthy students into elite universities and landed celebrity parents like Felicity Huffman in federal court.
- [00:46]
Sarah Hagie
And guess what, Sachi? He's back. Rick was released from federal prison in March 2025 and as of last summer, he's working in, wait for it, college admissions.
- [00:58]
Sachi Kol
Well, that makes sense. I mean, he's very good at it. He has a lot to prove.
- [01:01]
Sarah Hagie
Yes, and Rick is now the master coach and lead advisor at a company called ID Future Stars, which is owned by his sister. On their website he says he, quote, made a mistake and took full responsibility.
- [01:15]
Sachi Kol
Hmm, true. Kind of sounds technically true. No follow ups?
- [01:20]
Sarah Hagie
Well, federal prosecutors had some concerns about Rick jumping back into the same industry, but his defense attorneys argued that the work is lawful and allowed under the terms of a supervised release. And the judge agreed with a condition. Rick was required to post a 270 word disclaimer on the company's website explaining the charges against him and the fact that he pled guilty.
- [01:44]
Sachi Kol
Embarrassing, but okay. I guess it's the least you can expect.
- [01:49]
Sarah Hagie
I'm sure everyone reads that fine print, right? So, with acceptance emails rolling in, we're revisiting the story of Rick Singer, the fixer who gamed the system and is now advising students how to navigate it. Wondering, Sachi, as someone who lives in America, isn't the American college world just like, so confusing?
- [02:14]
Sachi Kol
It's so confusing. And also, Sarah, it is so embarrassing the way these people care about where they went to school, where their kids will go to school, what they do at that school. They talk about it. It's so mortifying.
- [02:28]
Sarah Hagie
I know. It's really crazy. And the most shocking part for me is that I can't believe they have to do so many extracurriculars to get into school. But I want to know what the most shocking part for you is.
- [02:39]
Sachi Kol
Every time I hear how much it costs to attend a post secondary in this country, I feel like screaming.
- [02:47]
Sarah Hagie
It's so Expensive. And it turns out that getting into an American college isn't just something that's confusing for us Canadians. The process is so complicated that there's an entire industry devoted to helping people get in. Today, I'm gonna tell you a story about a guy who helped people spend even more money on even shadier methods of getting their kids into elite schools. It's November 2023, and 60 year old Felicity Huffman is in a dark studio in LA waiting for cameras to roll. The Desperate Housewives star looks sophisticated, with clear framed glasses and her blonde hair blown out to perfection. She's a veteran and knows the drill. But she's probably more nervous than usual because she's not here to film a TV show. She's going to sit down with a reporter from ABC7 News. And it's the first time she's speaking publicly since her brief stint in prison. Three years ago, Felicity was arrested for paying someone to cheat on her daughter's sat. She pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, served 11 days in prison, and completed 250 hours of community service. But she was just one of more than 50 parents, coaches and school administrators who were charged in connection with one of the biggest college admission scandals ever. The investigation that took them all down was known as Operation Varsity Blues. Felicity was among the more famous people who were charged and convicted. This was huge news when it all went down in 2019, and there's been tons of media coverage about it since, including a Netflix documentary. Through it all, Felicity hasn't said a thing, even as she became a tabloid punching bag. But now she's ready to break her silence. The reporter wants to know one thing that's been on everyone's mind. How did you get caught up in this?
- [04:37]
Felicity Huffman
People assume that I went into this looking for a way to cheat the system and making proverbial criminal deals in back alleys. But that was not the case. I worked with a highly recommended college counselor named Rick Singer and trusted him implicitly.
- [04:55]
Sarah Hagie
Rick Singer was the mastermind behind the entire scheme. He was charged alongside Felicity and others, but he didn't get nearly as much media attention. Felicity tells a reporter that at first, Rick's work was all above board. But she says that as the application deadlines approached, his advice turned from helpful to criminal.
- [05:17]
Felicity Huffman
After a year, he started to say, your daughter's not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to. And I believed him. And so when he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seemed like, and I know this seems crazy at the time that that was my only option to give my daughter a future.
- [05:38]
Sachi Kol
It's so nuts to me that the US college racket is so complicated and so terrifying that even a celebrity feels like my kid will not be successful if they don't get into a particular school despite their wealth and their connections.
- [05:53]
Sarah Hagie
Exactly. Rick found that extreme wealth stat, status anxiety and natural parenting impulses made for a toxic and lucrative blend. So people were willing to do just about anything to get their kids into elite colleges. All he had to do was ask them how much they were willing to pay. From Wondery. I'm Sarah Hagie.
- [06:20]
Sachi Kol
And I'm Sachi Kol.
- [06:21]
Sarah Hagie
And this is Scamfluencers. Come and give me your attention. I won't ever learn my lesson. Turn my speaker. I feel like a legend. This is a story about the parents who want their kids to get into a top tier college, not just for the education, but also to signal their own social status and superior parenting. And with a zero sum admissions process full of loopholes and subjective decisions, it's easy to see how these parents could be convinced that they needed to lie to guarantee their kids future. By offering a shortcut to the upper crust, Rick Singer made a fortune. And his downfall exposed the dark side of the American education system. This is making up the grade the college admissions scandal legend in the early 60s, decades before he convinces any parents to commit fraud, Rick Singer grows up in a lower middle class family in a suburb of Chicago. Rick's a chubby kid with brown hair and boundless energy. We don't know much about Rick's upbringing, but court documents later suggest his dad was very intense and put a ton of pressure on his son to succeed. We do know that from an early age, Rick learns to hustle. When he's 12, he gets older kids to buy him booze and then sells it to underage kids for profit. And he starts working out obsessively. After being bullied for his weight, he becomes an accomplished athlete playing football, baseball and basketball. After high school, Rick jumps from college to College. Eventually, at 26, he graduates from a small private school in Texas. He takes a series of jobs as a basketball coach for high school and community college kids. First in Texas and then in Sacramento, California. By this point, he's tall and athletic with a long face and a prominent nose. Here's a picture of him as a young man from his local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee.
- [08:18]
Sachi Kol
He kind of still looks like this actually, but younger. He's got brown hair. He looks like Trent Reznor and Like Michael Phelps smushed together into one person. He's got a long face and some very piercing eyes. I feel unsettled.
- [08:34]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, he really looks intense. And turns out he was super aggressive on the basketball court, too. He even got fired from one high school for reportedly being super aggro to referees. But while coaching, Rick gets a firsthand look. Look at the college recruitment process for star athletes. It's easy. Schools seek them out. But Rick notices that for the other players and their parents, the process is much trickier. And these parents are desperate to figure out how to get their kids into a good school. That's when Rick decides to shift to college consulting. In the early 90s, when he's in his 30s, he starts his own company, Future Stars. But Rick isn't doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He wants to make money. So he decides to target the richest parents he can find, the ones willing to pay top dollar for help getting their kids into school. He starts hustling across the Sacramento area, pitching his company at high school college nights and places like country clubs. He explains that high school guidance counselors are swamped, but he can give dedicated support to each and every student. And the pitch works. Nervous parents line up to pay for Rick's services.
- [09:45]
Sachi Kol
The panic of suburban parents is such a profitable industry.
- [09:50]
Sarah Hagie
It really is, and Rick takes full advantage. Over the next three decades, he opens and operates several different college prep businesses. And thanks to word of mouth recommendations, he works with clients from all over the world. But while he suggests that every student will get his undivided attention, he doesn't actually do it all himself. Rick offloads a lot of the work on the tutors he hires, and then he takes a hefty chunk of their fees. Here's what one of his former employees told the Gangster Capitalism podcast.
- [10:21]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
He would charge the families, I found out later, $50 cash per hour for me, and he would give me 20 and keep 30. He liked nice things. He liked to dress well. He drove a nice car.
- [10:34]
Sarah Hagie
Despite handing off lots of his work, Rick's business is actually mostly above board. But that will only take him so far. He needs to gain a competitive edge to prove that he's the best college counselor money can buy, even if it means straight up lying. Federal authorities later estimate that Rick starts explicitly committing fraud in 2011, about 20 years after he first gets into college admissions. Coincidentally, that's the same year Rick's wife files for divorce. Soon after that, he picks up and moves to Newport Beach, California, where he buys an expensive Mediterranean style house flanked by lemon trees. At the same time, he throws himself into his college admissions business. And business is booming. In fact, a few years earlier, Rick taped an audition for a reality TV show about his work. And TMZ actually got a hold of the footage.
- [11:28]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
There's families all across the country that I work with, and many of them have their own planes. You know, we have families in Champaign and Miami, and they send their plane to come pick me up, come to the meeting for a couple hours, two, three hours, put me right back on the plane, send me to the next place I need to go. It's amazing.
- [11:45]
Sachi Kol
I feel like, you know, this is a situation where they could think about dismantling the existing education system because it's so flawed, but instead they're just gonna double down on the capitalism portion of it. I love that.
- [11:57]
Sarah Hagie
It's so deeply sick. The show never goes anywhere. But Rick's reputation and his asking fee has only grown. For context, the average high school college Counselor makes around $60,000 per year. Rick can make more than that on just one of his clients. And the reason he can charge so much is because when he says he can get results, he means it. But before we get into specific strategies, here's a little background. The quote, unquote, right school for most of Rick's wealthy clients is one of a handful of super elite colleges. Wealthy parents have always sought a competitive edge for their kids to get into those schools, historically by giving large donations. For example, Jared Kushner's dad famously donated more than $2 million to Harvard, most likely to get his son admitted. This method of acceptance is what Rick calls the back door to college admissions. But no matter how much money you donate, it won't guarantee a spot. And for the non Kushners, handing over millions of dollars on a risky bet just isn't possible. So Rick gives them other options he's used over the years. If a student applies more or less normally, Rick calls that the front door. And he's found ways to, let's say, enhance those applications. If a kid's grades aren't good enough, Rick will find online classes their high school will accept for extra credit, hire someone to take them, and use those scores to boost the kid's gpa. He can also help that kid get a near perfect score on standardized tests. He'll get a doctor to diagnose a student with a learning disability, even if they don't actually have one. That will allow the kid to take the act or sat with a private proctor and extended time here's how Rick describes it to one parent in a secretly recorded call later released by the FBI.
- [13:49]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
What has happened is all the wealthy families have figured out that if I get my kid tested and they get extended time, they can do better on the test. So most of these kids don't even have issues, but they're getting time. The playing field's not fair.
- [14:02]
Sachi Kol
You know, he's right. It's not fair. But his response, which is to make it even more unfair, seems ill advised.
- [14:10]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, and Rick goes beyond just getting more time. He has a proctor on his payroll who can actually take the test for the student in question or correct their answers. Rick can even arrange things so kids never know the test was fixed. The price of the service varies. Felicity Huffman paid $15,000, while other parents pay up to $75,000. Rick can also make a kid look more appealing by just straight up lying, like he'll make up a fake award. And he often lies about a kid's ethnicity so they'll benefit from affirmative action. And if you don't want to roll the dice with an admissions office at all. Rick has yet another way of helping students get into school. It's a process he calls the side door, which means getting his client's kid recruited as an athlete for the college of their choice. Even if they don't play a sport at most colleges, each team gets a certain number of recruiting spots per year. Admissions departments often have the ability to lower their academic standards for these athletes, and they usually defer to the athletic directors and coaches. Luckily, Rick has established lucrative business relationships with coaches and athletic directors all over the country, including at Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, and usc. Rick likes to pick low profile sports like rowing or water polo. Then he creates a fake athletic profile for the student, bribes his contact in the athletics department, and boom, the kid is in. Parents still pay a lot of money for this side door approach, but it tends to cost way less than buying a building at Harvard. That's still legal, but Rick's cheaper strategies are definitely not. So rather than paying him directly, parents send money to his nonprofit Key Worldwide Foundation. On paper, the charity helps underserved kids get into college. In reality, Rick uses the foundation's bank account to pay himself as well as anyone else involved in his schemes. And the best part? Parents can claim their shady payments as a tax write off. No one at the colleges asks any questions. After all, lots of the people who are supposed to watch out for fraud are getting bribes. So Rick feels untouchable. But he's overlooking a group of people who could seriously threaten his scheme. The same people he's been shit talking for years. High school college counselors. In the winter of 2017, Julie Taylor Vaz is in her office making a phone call. Julie is in her early 50s, has a close cropped fro and a warm smile. She's a veteran college counselor at Buckley, a super wealthy private high school nestled in the Hollywood Hills. Julie used to work in admissions at Stanford. Now she helps Buckley students through the college application process and talks them up to admissions departments. She's on a call with an admissions officer at Tulane University who says she's especially impressed with one Buckley senior named Amanda. Now, we should note that Amanda isn't her real name. We've changed the names of the kids in the story because they weren't the ones charged with crimes. Tulane tells Julie they'd love to hear more about Amanda. After all, she's a young black woman with incredible test scores who'll be the first person in her family to attend college. You'd think Julie would be excited about this too, but she's confused because Amanda is actually white and her father is a prominent attorney who not only attended college, but but is on the Buckley school board.
- [17:40]
Sachi Kol
Yeah, I would also find this kind of confusing, I think.
- [17:43]
Sarah Hagie
Well, Julie thinks there must have been some kind of mix up. She tells her bosses and sets Tulane straight. Then she starts looking into Amanda's other applications. Julie learns that a bunch of other schools Amanda applied to also think she's black and a potential first generation college student. Then she learns something wild. Amanda had applied early to Georgetown. And Georgetown doesn't just have the wrong demographic information. They also think that Amanda is one of California's top tennis players and that she's being recruited to play the sport. But Julie has never heard of Amanda playing tennis at a competitive enough level to get recruited. Buckley's higher ups call Amanda's father, trying to get some answers. He says he and Amanda have no idea what happened. But he did hire a college counselor named Rick Singer. And someone who works with Rick must have changed the info on the applications. Now, this wouldn't be totally shocking. Last year, Julie had to deal with a student who wasn't able to access their applications because Rick changed the password. Buckley has already asked parents not to work with Rick. Advice that Amanda's dad ignored. For what it's worth, we talked to a lawyer for Amanda's family who told us that no one in the family knew about any of the cheating. And there's no hard evidence to suggest they did. But Julie thinks that either way, no one should be filling out Amanda's applications for her. And a couple of months later, Julie watches as Buckley is rocked by another scandal. Students learn that several members of the board, including Amanda's dad, successfully petitioned for teachers to change their kids grades. The ensuing outcry leads Buckley's head of school to resign. Meanwhile, Georgetown opens an investigation. But apparently they don't find evidence of anything major that leads back to Rick. Julie knows something isn't right. And just a few weeks later, in early spring 2018, she has her suspicions confirmed. She gets a call from USC and they tell her they're offering a spot to a student. We'll call Marcus. They say he made it into their water polo team. But Julie's never heard anything about Marcus playing the sport competitively. And Buckley doesn't even have a water polo team.
- [19:57]
Sachi Kol
As ever, Sarah, I'm always impressed by the boldness of not just lying that you're participating in something, but lying that you're participating in something that does not exist.
- [20:06]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, it also is a pretty believable lie because I would just assume that every private school has a water polo team. But it turns out Marcus father paid Rick a quarter of a million dollars to secure him a spot at usc. Marcus actually posed with a water polo cap and a ball his dad ordered from Amazon. Then he was Photoshopped into an action shot that Rick used for Marcus fake athletic profile. Julie doesn't know all the shady details at this point, but she tries to raise the alarm with USC's admissions office. She tells him there must have been a mistake, but the athletic director isn't having it. She shuts down Julie's questions because she's on Rick's payroll. She even provides a cover story. Marcus plays water polo in Europe in the summer, which is where he met the USC coach. This seems beyond fishy to Julie, but the admissions department is in the process of confirming Marcus recruitment. They're going to accept him either way. Besides, her job is to get students into prestigious colleges, not out of them. Julie backs off, but she knows there's something not right here. And she's not the only one. Because a surprising unwitting ally is about to help take the whole scheme down. In March 2018, Maury Tobin is at home when he hears a loud banging on his door. Maury's in his 50s and he looks like a nerdy Don Draper. He's a wealthy finance guy and lives in a chateau style mansion in a bougie part of la. He's Shocked when federal agents swarm into his house and tell him he's under arrest. For a second, Morey's probably not sure what he's being charged with, because he's been doing a lot of crimes. He was involved in a massive pump and dump stock scheme. It duped investors out of at least $15 million, but he also agreed to pay the soccer coach at Yale almost half a million dollars to get his youngest daughter in as a recruit.
- [22:02]
Sachi Kol
I almost respect that this guy is doing so much crime that he's like, I'm not even really sure what I'm in trouble for today.
- [22:11]
Sarah Hagie
Well, he pretty quickly finds out that he's getting busted for the stock scheme, and a few weeks later, he flies to Boston so the agents can question him. That's when he makes an offer to save his own skin. He tells the FBI he knows an Ivy League soccer coach who's taking bribes in exchange for getting kids into college. It's a huge defeat for him because Maury loves Yale. He went there for a time, but left before graduating. And he's been trying to get all six of his kids to go there, too. At this point, one has already graduated and two others are currently enrolled. It's not clear if he did anything to get them in, but he has been working behind the scenes to get his youngest daughter admitted. Maury knows his tips to the Feds might eventually out her, but he just can't face the prospect of serious prison time. But soon enough, Maury's daughter won't be the only one thrown under the bus.
- [23:08]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
I'm Indra Varma, and in the latest season of the Spy who, we open the file on Larry Chin, the spy who outplayed Nixon. For decades, Chin was embedded deep inside US Intelligence. Then comes an opportunity. Richard Nixon's secret plan to reopen relations with China. Information Chin can place directly into Mao's hands. But the CIA has a weapon of their own. A Chinese mole ready to defect. How long until Chin's gig is up? Follow the Spy who Now Wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [23:38]
Felicity Huffman
Hello, I'm Matt Ford.
- [23:40]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
And I'm Alice Levine.
- [23:41]
Felicity Huffman
And we're the hosts of British Scandal.
- [23:43]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
Now, Britain loves a royal scandal. Abdications, affairs, dodgy uncles. We've had the lot.
- [23:49]
Felicity Huffman
But this series is about two brothers
- [23:51]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
raised in palaces, bound by by tragedy. Supposed to be inseparable.
- [23:56]
Felicity Huffman
So how did they end up barely speaking?
- [23:58]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
Was it jealousy? The press?
- [24:00]
Sachi Kol
The firm?
- [24:01]
Felicity Huffman
Or was this royal rift always inevitable? This is the story of Harry and Wills and the scandal that split the house of Windsor.
- [24:09]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
Follow British scandal wherever you get your podcasts or listen early and ad free on audible.
- [24:25]
Sarah Hagie
I feel like a Legend Shortly after his arrest, Maury is in a Boston hotel room holding a wad of cash. He's meeting with the Yale soccer coach to hand over the bribe. It's part of the $450,000 he's promised the coach in exchange for getting his daughter into school. We'll call her Regina, but this is not a normal handoff. The hotel room has been bugged by the FBI. To save himself, Mowry is serving up the coach on a silver platter and his daughter is about to be collateral damage. Regina has already posted all about landing a spot on Yale's soccer team on her Instagram. Some of her classmates parents were surprised by this news. Regina is a good soccer player, but probably not good enough for a top tier athletic program. Ironically, Regina has also gone out of her way to rat on fellow students she suspects of cheating. She thinks they're lying to get more time on standardized tests.
- [25:26]
Sachi Kol
I miss so much being 17 or 18 and starting college and just being so delusional about how good you are at something that even though you know you're not like that good at soccer, you're like, yeah, sure, I play soccer for Yale. Why not?
- [25:41]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, it really shows that these are actual children. And it also seems like it's one of those cases where her parents try to hide it from her. But back in the hotel room, the soccer coach takes the bait. The FBI scoops him up shortly afterward, and just like Maury, he offers to cooperate in exchange for lighter punishment. He tells the feds that he isn't the ringleader. He says it's a guy named Rick Singer. The FBI uses the evidence to start tapping Rick's phones. It's the beginning of a massive investigation into Rick and his many powerful clients. The same day Maury helps burn the soccer coach, Massimo Giannulli storms into Marymount High School. It's a Catholic all girls school in Los Angeles with mission style architecture and tuition that costs more than $40,000 a year. Mossimo is a tanned and fit 55 year old fashion designer. Yes, millennials, it's that Mossimo. His daughter Olivia Jade goes to Marmount. Mossimo is here to confront one of the school's college counselors, Philip Petrone. Philip is in his 40s and handsome with brown boy band hair and a big smile. He's been assigned to help Olivia apply to college. He even wrote her letter of recommendation. But Mossimo has just learned that Philip has also done something extremely unhelpful and he is livid. Mossimo heard that USC called Philip to say they planned to recruit Olivia for the crew team. This was part of Mossimo's plan for his daughter. But to Mossimo's extreme annoyance, Philip told USC that he highly doubted she was a competitive rower. Apparently, Philip told USC that most of Olivia's extracurricular time is spent on her budding career as a vlogger and beauty influencer. That part is true. She is extremely successful at it. In his letter of recommendation, Philip called her a quote, guru in her field and Saatchi, this is why we aren't changing Olivia's name like we did for the other kids. She was already a public figure when this all happened, and as we'll see, she has some things to say about it. Mossimo and his wife, the actress Lori Loughlin, have paid half a million dollars to get their two daughters into usc. And this plan includes claiming that Olivia's an accomplished coxswain, which is basically the captain of a rowing team. In order to make that believable, they've staged a photo of Olivia. Jade Sachi, will you describe it? Yeah.
- [28:18]
Sachi Kol
It's Olivia. Her face is blurred out. In this photo, she's pretending to row on a machine. This is the body language of someone who has never before seen or experienced a rowing exercise. She looks uncomfortable.
- [28:35]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, it looks so awkward. But Massimo is still not going to let anything get in the way of all their work to get Olivia accepted. Philip's honesty is threatening his investment, but he keeps yelling until Philip promises to call USC back and say, my bad. Olivia totally has a rowing career. Satisfied, Massimo leaves campus. It's been challenging for him because actually, Olivia doesn't even want to go to college. She wants to drop out of high school and focus on her influencer career. And she's not hiding her feelings either. Here's what she said in a vlog about her first day of senior year, posted a few months earlier.
- [29:14]
Olivia Jade
On a real note, though, I know that I complain about school. I mean, who actually enjoys going to school if you do? I'm very jealous. But I also feel the need to say that for all of us that like to complain about school, because I get how much it sucks. We have to remember how lucky we are to have an education and how many people would kill to have a good education. But I'm grateful that I get to be educated, even though I hate it.
- [29:35]
Sachi Kol
Everyone was really mad at her about this, but I gotta say, like, I'm not. This is how I felt when I was going to school. I think a lot of people, even though you're like, yeah, I'm blessed and grateful for the opportunity, going to school is annoying. It's annoying. And you kind of want to be done. By the time you're like 20, you're ready to go do something else. I get it. Yeah.
- [29:55]
Sarah Hagie
I really can't hate on a teenager for being like, I hate school. But it's not really about what Olivia Jade wants. And Mossimo is relieved when Philip's apology seems to work and USC doesn't rescind his daughter's acceptance. But what he doesn't know is that USC starts an investigation into Olivia's recruitment. But the person they asked to lead the inquiry is the same athletic director Rick bribed to get her in in the first place. So obviously that investigation goes nowhere. For the moment, it seems like Mossimo and Rick's scheme for Olivia has gone off without a hitch. Except that USC isn't the only organization investigating Mossimo's bribe. And this is one authority that cannot be bought off. It's July 2018, a couple of months after Mossimo's visit to Philip's office. And for the last few months, FBI Special Agent Laura Smith has been secretly monitoring all of Rick's calls. Laura's in her late 30s and has been a forensic accountant with the FBI in Boston for eight years. And now she's on this case, which is getting to be so big, they need to give the investigation its own name. You know, like in a movie. And they decide to pay homage to one of the greatest teen movies of all time by naming it Operation Varsity Blues.
- [31:16]
Sachi Kol
This is why I think cops are embarrassing.
- [31:18]
Sarah Hagie
I mean, they have to have a little bit of fun. Since Laura started working on Rick's case, the number of co conspirators she's identified has ballooned. I need to tell you about one of my favorites, Jane Buckingham. She's a blonde momfluencer and trend forecaster who's always looking like she's posing for a Christmas card. And Jane gives self help speeches telling parents they're at fault for coddling their kids. Sachi, will you describe this Instagram post from 2018?
- [31:44]
Olivia Jade
Yes.
- [31:45]
Sachi Kol
It's a post with big block letters that says don't cheat. And then the caption says, apply it to all aspects of your life and you'll probably be okay. I love irony.
- [31:56]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah, I mean, I think she's doing the influencer thing of pretending you are a different person than you are Cool. By the summer of 2018, Laura has discovered that Jane is paying Rick $50,000 to help her son cheat on his act. We're going to call him Gerald. At this point, he's already gotten a fraudulent learning disability diagnosis so he can have extended time on the test. And he's supposed to fly to Texas in July to take it with the proctor who's in Rick's pocket. This person will fix his answers to be sure he gets a high score. Two days before Gerald is supposed to take the test, Laura intercepts a panicked call Jane makes to Rick. Jane complains that Gerald needs his tonsils removed and his dad doesn't want him traveling. So Jane suggests the proctor just go ahead and take the test for Gerald, even though they won't be in the same state. But Jane also wants Gerald to take a fake test at home because he doesn't know about the cheating and she doesn't want him to find out. The other person she doesn't want to know Gerald's dad. They're still dealing with the fallout of a nasty divorce. Laura can't believe what she's hearing. And then on a scene second call, she hears Rick convince his proctor in Texas to go along with Jane's plan. Finally, Rick calls Jane back to tell her the good news. They're all set. Sachi, do you mind reading an excerpt of their conversation?
- [33:23]
Sachi Kol
Sure. Jane says, I need you to get him into usc, and then I need you to cure cancer and make peace in the Middle East. And Rick says, I can do that if you can figure out a way to boot your husband out so he treats you well. And Jane says, that's impossible. But you know, peace in the Middle east, you know, Harvard, the rest of it. I have faith in you. That's almost romantic.
- [33:43]
Sarah Hagie
They're kind of flirting, huh?
- [33:45]
Sachi Kol
They are going to the boneyard. Yes.
- [33:48]
Sarah Hagie
Well, Laura lets the plan go through. She doesn't want to interfere with this gold mine of evidence. And sure, Gerald's classmates are confused when they find out he took the act at home because that's not really a thing. But ultimately, no one really questions it. The college admissions process has become so crazy that nothing is surprising anymore. In the end, gerald gets a 35 out of 36 on the ACT. And a few weeks later, Laura decides that she's done preparing. It's time to give Rick his big test. Not long after Gerald takes the act, Rick is in Boston talking to the Yale soccer coach turned FBI informant. It's September 2018, and they're in a room at a Marriott hotel to discuss an upcoming bribe. Of course, Rick doesn't know that the FBI loves a good hotel room sting, in that they've planted cameras and mics to catch him red handed. Once the conversation is over, there's a knock at the door. Rick opens it to find Laura waiting for him with handcuffs. The FBI has Rick dead to rights. So ever the hustle, he changes tactics. He says he'll cooperate to help them nail parents and college officials in exchange for leniency. And Laura agrees this will help the FBI make an example out of the rest of Rick's network. Still, Rick is used to winning, so he tries to have it both ways. He's supposed to continue the fraud as if everything is normal, but he also tries to warn a few of his clients. He deletes text messages, meets with people in secret, and uses a second phone that he keeps hidden from the feds. But before one of his secret meetings, Laura catches on. They slap Rick with an additional obstruction of justice charge, and he gives in. He realizes he has no leverage to keep himself safe. But remember, Rick's a competitive guy. He probably figures that if he has to be an informant, he might as well be the best one the FBI has ever seen. So Rick starts to actively trick his clients into incriminating themselves. Over the next few months, he sits with Laura and other federal agents to make a series of calls on a recorded line. The easiest targets are the clients he's currently working with, like Felicity Huffman and her husband, the actor William H. Macy. They're considering using the cheating scheme again for their younger daughter. Rick tries to get them to confirm that they paid fifteen thousand thousand dollars for their older daughter's false test score. And unaware that Rick is playing them, William just responds, cool. This is like the best case of someone not really listening and responding. Yeah, I mean.
- [36:35]
Sachi Kol
Oh, no notes.
- [36:37]
Sarah Hagie
No notes.
- [36:37]
Sachi Kol
No notes.
- [36:38]
Sarah Hagie
Well, for past clients, though, there's no real reason for Rick to call out of the blue. They've already gotten their kids into college. So Rick and Laura use a cover story to dig up evidence. They agree that he'll tell the parents his foundation is being audited by the IRS and that he's calling to make sure they have the same story. Remember, most of the parents paid their bribes through his charity and wrote off the payments on their taxes. Here's what Rick says on a recorded call with a real estate developer who paid over $600,000 to get his daughters into USC and UCLA.
- [37:13]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
So what's happened is my foundation is. Is getting audited now, huh? Which as you know, is pretty typical. Uh huh. Right. So they're looking at all my payments.
- [37:24]
Sachi Kol
Is it that common to get audited? Yeah.
- [37:28]
Sarah Hagie
I mean also it is just the way he's saying it is so slow and careful that I feel like it probably is a bit suspicious. Yeah.
- [37:36]
Sachi Kol
This is filling me with dread.
- [37:38]
Sarah Hagie
Shockingly, no one seems to catch on that Rick's a snitch. Soon enough, the FBI has put together all the evidence it needs. Rick's clients have been trying to get their kids into high profile colleges, but they're about to be admitted into a high profile class of their own. Indicted co conspirators.
- [38:06]
Podcast Hosts (Matt Ford and Alice Levine)
I feel like a legend.
- [38:11]
Sarah Hagie
On the morning of March 14, 2019, about six months after Rick's arrest, Maury's daughter Regina goes to school like it's any other day. She's a senior at an all girls school in LA's wealthy Larchmont area. She's sailing through the last bit of senior year because she knows she's already been recruited for the Yale soccer team. But then the news starts to break. Dozens of people have been arrested as part of Operation Varsity Blue Blues. It's a massive scandal and the media is having a field day.
- [38:42]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
A flurry of new indictments Today ensnaring celebrities, CEOs, college coaches in a massive scheme to game the college admissions system.
- [38:51]
Felicity Huffman
The bust is called Operation Varsity Blues and the accusations range from paying thousands of dollars for higher SAT scores to presenting students as top athletes in sports they never even played.
- [39:02]
Former Employee / FBI Informant
Actress, actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among the 50 people now charged in this scandal.
- [39:09]
Sarah Hagie
Those are clips from cnn, ABC News and CBS Evening News.
- [39:14]
Sachi Kol
I remember when this broke and I feel like it probably would not have been as big of a deal were it not for two famous women who were wrapped up in this. Otherwise it just would have been like, oh, another scam to get into college. Like, sure, whatever.
- [39:27]
Sarah Hagie
No, exactly. And this all seems like fun, juicy celebrity gossip until Regina learns that her father Maury is also caught up in the sting. Which means he bought her way into Yale. And worse still, he's being named as the source who outed the scheme to the FBI. He's a cheat and a snitch and he didn't even warn her. She's learning about it alongside everyone else. It's Regina's worst nightmare. Everyone stares at her as she walks down the hall. Some of her classmates are openly laugh at her. She turns around and starts running, tears streaming down her face.
- [40:05]
Sachi Kol
This is so mortifying. This would change my relationship with my family for the rest of my life. I would never trust them again.
- [40:13]
Sarah Hagie
She's a teenager who's suffering. I feel bad for her.
- [40:16]
Sachi Kol
Yeah.
- [40:17]
Sarah Hagie
And as you might expect, a couple of months later, Regina gets rejected by Yale. Her classmates reportedly cheer when they find out, leaving Regina in tears again. But her humiliation is just the beginning of the media circus surrounding Operation Varsity blues. In total, 50 people are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. This includes parents, standardized testing professionals, college coaches and administrators. The FBI says the parents paid Rick more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018. If found guilty, they could face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines. Many of Rick's co conspirators initially deny any involvement in the scheme. But when they learn of the overwhelming evidence gathered with Rick's cooperation, almost everyone pleads guilty, including Massimo and Lori, Jane and Felicity. All of the athletic directors and coaches involved lose their jobs. In the end. Sentences in the various Blues case range from probation to 30 months in prison. Regina's father, Maury, isn't charged thanks to his snitching, but he ends up getting one year in prison for the stock scam, the charge he was trying to avoid in the first place. The only person who seems to come out on top is Olivia Jade. Now she has an excuse to drop out of college like she always wanted. Her reputation takes a hit and Sephora drops the Olivia Jade beauty line they were carrying. But she bounces back pretty quickly. After an eight month hiatus, she returns to her YouTube channel. And a year later, she does an apology tour on the Facebook watch show Red Table Talk.
- [41:58]
Olivia Jade
I'm not trying to victimize myself. I don't want pity. I don't deserve pity. And for so long, I wasn't able to talk about this because of the legalities behind it. I never got to say I'm really sorry that this happened.
- [42:09]
Sarah Hagie
Olivia still has millions of fans on Instagram and YouTube and a thriving influencer career. She got a spot on Dancing with the Stars. Plus, as of this recording, she appears to be dating actor and Internet boyfriend, Jacob Elordi.
- [42:24]
Sachi Kol
Well, we all have crosses to bear. Some of us must date someone very tall. Others must make podcasts.
- [42:30]
Sarah Hagie
I'm glad she's okay. And she seems genuinely sorry to me. After everyone is sentenced, Rick finally has his day in court. He opts not to wear his usual athletic coach attire. Instead, he wears a gray pinstripe suit with a black and white checkered tie. His lawyers say that he's been living in a trailer park in St. Petersburg, Florida. Unable to get a job, they say he's been offering paddleboarding lessons to autistic children and veterans looking for leniency. Rick's lawyers point out that he's already agreed to turn over $5 million, and they note that he helped the FBI with its investigation. But Laura and the court aren't jumping to applaud him. In legal filings, they remind the judge of Rick's secret cell phone, how he got rid of evidence, and his sneaky meetings to warn parents. There's no indication that Rick would have ever stopped if he wasn't caught. He's sentenced to three and a half years in prison, which, if you think about it, is almost long enough to earn a bachelor's degree. Saji. This episode is very foreign to us. I remember first reading about all of this and being like, is it really that hard to get into college? Because plenty of dumb people I know have gone to colleges like usc.
- [43:49]
Sachi Kol
I mean, yes. I think this scam really, like, lays bare that it isn't about whether or not you're smart. It's about where your money is and who you know, and you can kind of get anything you want. I mean, this is a country where you can buy anything. Why wouldn't you be able to buy an education like that?
- [44:05]
Olivia Jade
Yeah.
- [44:05]
Sarah Hagie
And I do wonder, like, you know, especially with some of these wealthier parents, you already have generational wealth set up for your kids. Why does it matter so much which college they go to? That's a part I still can't really wrap my head around.
- [44:23]
Sachi Kol
Yeah, there's an importance to going to the same school that your parents went or going to the school that they couldn't get into or going into an Ivy. Like, think about how many TikTok videos you've seen of kids sitting with their parents to open their acceptance letters and hope that they got into a school and they're, like, wearing sweaters and everybody cheers. Like, that is not an experience I was ever gonna have that I think you were ever gonna have. The most people we know in Canada were ever gonna have never. But there is an obsession about it, and, like, the kids don't always have it. Sometimes it's just the parents.
- [44:56]
Sarah Hagie
I understand. Also, it matters to these people because it doesn't just end with getting into a good school. It's being around the right people, which is the part that also gets me. It's like they kind of just got played by their own classism.
- [45:10]
Sachi Kol
Yeah.
- [45:10]
Sarah Hagie
I guess, let me put it that way. And I do Think outside of this being ridiculous, there are kids that were not allowed to get into these schools because these rich kids took their spots.
- [45:23]
Olivia Jade
Yeah.
- [45:24]
Sachi Kol
I mean, the unfortunate part about this truly is like college admissions is a pie, Right? There's only so many pieces of it. And when someone lies to get in, it means somebody else who maybe deserved it can't. And that sucks.
- [45:37]
Sarah Hagie
One thing I think isn't expected with the story is the whole Olivia Jade thing. Like, she was such a target at first, but she never wanted to go to school. So I don't really know why she had to apologize.
- [45:49]
Sachi Kol
I think unfortunately, Olivia became like the poster child for over privileged children in la, which a lot of that is still true about her. She's still incredibly privileged and lucky. But I think like a lot of kids, her parents told her that they were going to handle something and she believed them. I can't tell you how many times my parents were like, we're just going to deal with this. Sign here. We're going to get this sorted for you. We're going to open your bank account, we're going to help you with your college stuff. I said yes blindly to everything because of course I trust my parents. So I feel kind of bad for these kids because they're learning a really painful lesson at a very tender age, which is that sometimes your parents are full of shit. And what a brutal public way to find that out.
- [46:29]
Sarah Hagie
Yeah. And also, you know, to give these parents a little bit of grace. This is kind of how society is built where school is the most important thing in the world, especially in America, where people think you can't have a life without college. And I just want to say, you know, as someone who, let's say, dropped out of post secondary, my life is great. Like you could survive without school.
- [46:53]
Sachi Kol
Listen, man, I did graduate from university and you and I have the same job. So foreign.
- [47:06]
Sarah Hagie
This is making up the grade. The College Admissions Scandal I'm Sarah Hagie.
- [47:11]
Sachi Kol
And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us@scamfluencerswondry.com we use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were To Cheat and Lie in LA by Evgenia Peretz for Vanity Fair the Yale dad who Set off the College Admissions Scandal by Jennifer Levitz for the Wall Street Journal and Operation Varsity, the College Admission Scandal directed by Chris Smith for
- [47:36]
Sarah Hagie
Netflix Rachel Borders wrote this episode. Additional writing by us Sachi Kuhl and Sarah Hagie Sarah Enny is our story editor and senior producer and Eric Thurm is our story editor. Fact checking by Sarah Baum Sound design by James Morgan Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For Freeson Sync. Our managing producers are Matt Gant and Desi Blaylock. Jeanine Cornello and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexie Pirie. Our producers are John Reed, Yasmin Ward, and Kate Young. Our senior producers are Ginny Blume and Jen Swan. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer, Beckman, Marshall Louie, and Erin o'. Flaherty. For Wondery,
- [48:35]
Sachi Kol
Follow Scamflancers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamflancers ad free by joining Audible.