WASHINGTON – William Singer, the man who concocted a college admission plan that allowed wealthy parents to buy their children’s way into some of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, The New York Times reported.
Federal prosecutors said Singer, as the ringleader of a US$25 million criminal enterprise, “massively corrupted the integrity of the college admissions process,” according to the report after the sentencing in a Boston court on Wednesday.
The judge also ordered Singer to pay more than US$10 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, the report added.
Sputnik reported the federal government began an investigation beginning in 2018-19 which snagged dozens of parents, coaches and exam administrators in a vast college admissions ruse that implicated athletic programs at the University of Stanford, Southern California, Yale and other colleges and universities.
Singer, a former basketball coach and college counsellor, was able to get students admitted by bribing coaches and test monitors, falsifying exam scores, fabricating student biographies and embellishing athletic credentials.
More than 50 people were charged, including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, a former casino executive, a private equity financier and other wealthy and prominent individuals.
Singer became a government informant after pleading guilty in 2019 to several racketeering and money laundering-related charges. – Bernama
