Washington, Jan. 4. William “Rick” Singer, responsible for a network of millionaire bribes to facilitate the admission of young people to prestigious universities in the United States, was sentenced this Wednesday to three and a half years in prison.
The fraud, which came to light in 2019, hit celebrities like actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, who paid millions of dollars to a charity run by Singer to ensure their children were accepted to elite universities like Yale, Georgetown or Stanford.
Singer, 62, was convicted by a federal court in Boston (Massachusetts) for various crimes, including money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Judge Rya Zobel also ordered him to pay $10 million from his estate, according to US media reports.
In court, where the sentence was read, the mastermind behind the scandal apologized for his actions.
“I lost my ethical values and for that I have a lot of remorse. To be honest, I am ashamed of myself,” said the convicted man.
Singer pleaded guilty to the charges against him in 2019 and had begun cooperating with the law months earlier, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Singer’s conviction is the most recent and strongest in relation to the ‘Varsity Blues’ case, which has led the prosecution to file charges against more than 50 people involved in the bribery network, including parents and officials of the universities.
Actresses Huffman and Loughlin pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the fraud, and were sentenced to two weeks and two months in prison respectively in 2020.
In the plot, which included the falsification of entrance exams for several universities, the parents involved came to deliver figures of up to 25 million dollars in bribes.
Other parents paid to present falsified tests of their children and thus obtain higher grades with the aim of entering these educational centers. EFE
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