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Downloaded from
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[woman 1] I'm about to check
my USC decision.

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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I know it'll be okay if I don't.
I saw a lot of people got rejected, so…

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I'm already on the page.
It says "status update."

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-[woman 2] "New update."
-I clicked it.

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Okay, status update.

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This is my ultimate dream school.

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I'm getting rejected. I already know.

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I just clicked it. Oh, my God.

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[gasping]

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Oh, my God.

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Wait, I got accepted!

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[screams]

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Oh, my God!

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[screaming]

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-Yeah!
-[crying]

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[all screaming and cheering]

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[woman 3] This is some crazy stuff.

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Let's talk about this.

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There's been a firestorm of news coverage
on a sort of college admissions scandal.

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Explosive details
about the largest college admissions scam

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prosecuted by
the Department of Justice ever.

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Our friends are talking about one thing,
this story. It's hit a real nerve.

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[reporter 1] Real estate executives,
a lawyer, doctor and a litany of CEOs,

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all facing criminal charges.

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[reporter 2] An FBI investigation
called Operation Varsity Blues.

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Operation Varsity Blues.

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Operation Varsity Blues.

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[reporter 3] How are you
after the scandal?

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-[reporter 4] Are you sorry?
-[reporter 5] Singer designed the scam

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and collected tens of millions of dollars.

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[reporter 6] Parents paid him top dollar
to pass their kids off as star athletes.

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-[reporter 7] Rick Singer.
-Rick Singer.

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-[reporter 8] Rick Singer.
-[reporter 9] Rick Singer.

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[reporter 11] The mastermind
behind the operation.

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[reporter 12] It is sending shockwaves
across the country.

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[alarm ringing]

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[tense music playing]

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[Singer on phone] The money goes
into my foundation as a donation.

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[John Wilson on phone] To your foundation?
Not to the schools.

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[Singer] Yeah, that way the kids
don't know it happens, right?

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You make a financial commitment.

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What school you want
may determine how much that actually is.

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[Wilson] And so, in terms of things
that are more than half million or 300,

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what's that set of schools?

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[Singer] So that's, uh, Georgetown,
Boston College, Georgia Tech,

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USC, UCLA, Berkeley, you know.

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[Wilson] Okay, that's… that's not bad.

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[Gordon Caplan]
She's not a terrific student.

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She's been testing very badly.

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[Michelle Janavs] She's smart.
She's gonna figure this out.

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She already thinks
I'm up to, like, no good.

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[Wilson] Uh, is Harvard easier
'cause of legacy?

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[Singer] No, it's not.

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-[Wilson] That doesn't mean shit?
-[Singer] Your legacy means zero because…

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[Wilson] Unless we're donating
to a building, huh?

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[Caplan] I went to Cornell.

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I've already given around $750,000 there.

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[Singer] Let's be frank, right?

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Your 750 is diddly-dink in the world.

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I know people
who have given $50 million to Cornell.

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[Jane Buckingham] Uh, will you send me
where and how I should send the check?

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[Singer] Oh, yeah. We'll send it so that
you get your IRS tax write-off.

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-[Buckingham] Even better.
-[Wilson] What if they don't get in?

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[Singer chuckles] You don't have to worry.
It's a done deal.

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[Wilson] Is there a two-for-one
special for twins?

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[Singer] John, how are you?

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[Wilson] Hey, Rick.
You're pretty busy these days, huh?

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Yeah, we got early decision coming up.

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So, hey, I do wanna talk a bit about
your pricing strategy and economic model.

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Uh…

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I don't wanna force it on you,
but I just think it could be helpful.

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No, no, uh, yeah.

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I have a bunch of schools
that we work with directly

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and, you know,
it's kind of a first come, first served.

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So… pick a place you wanna go.

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So, if you said Harvard

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or Princeton or Georgetown,
you know, one of those things.

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Well, if you wanna use my side door
at Harvard, it's about $1.2 million.

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Jesus.

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But if you wanna go through the back door,
Harvard's asking for $45 million.

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-God.
-Stanford's asking for $50 million.

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-Wow.
-And they're getting it.

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That's the crazy thing.

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They're getting it
from the Bay Area and New York.

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John, this is how crazy it's gotten.

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I'm gonna do
over 730 of these side doors this year.

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[Wilson] Wow.

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And how many schools
are you doing those at now?

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Just like the top 20 or 50 or…

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[Robert Fisher] I've done a lot
of wiretaps over the years.

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It truly is amazing sometimes
what people will say on the phone

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when they don't know
that the feds are listening.

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I know. I know.
It's craziness. I know it is.

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Then I need you to get him into USC,
and then I need you to cure cancer,

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and, oh, make peace in the Middle East.

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I could do that.

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I could do that if you figure out a way
to boot your husband out

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so that he treats you better.

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[woman] That's impossible.
That is impossible.

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[Fisher] The government did a wiretap
on Rick's phone. He didn't know.

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He was intercepted talking to many people.

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Every working mom comes to me
and says, "How do I do it all?"

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Well, guess what? You can't.

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There aren't many federal cases where
you have 50 people indicted for a crime.

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So we're trying to get ourselves,
like, a 34 on the ACT.

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[woman] Yeah. Yeah.

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[Singer] So Mark will do that.
Really could be a 33.

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-Could be a 34. Could be a 35.
-[woman] Right.

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[Singer] Can you get me
a handwriting sample?

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-[woman] Yep.
-And a signature sample.

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-So we can get kinda close.
-[woman] Yes.

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[Daniel Golden] Rick Singer was
the independent counselor

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who orchestrated the wrongdoing
in Operation Varsity Blues,

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and the court documents
indicate that it started in 2011.

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My own research
into Singer's life and career

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indicates that, on a smaller scale,

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he was deceptive for decades before that.

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[Margie Amott] I'd like to think
Rick started out

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trying to be professional
and trying to be legitimate.

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For a number of years,
Rick was the go-to person.

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He was the only one in town
who did this sort of thing.

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If you wanted information about
college admissions, you went to Rick.

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I think people were eager to use him.
They were excited.

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They were impressed and thought,
"Wow, he knows the formula."

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"He knows the rules.
He has the key to the game."

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[Akil Bello] If you're a well-to-do parent
in a school with 500 seniors,

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your child is getting a fraction
of the attention you want them to get.

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So you do what you do.
You apply money to the problem.

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You find somebody who will
independently help just your child,

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and help them through this process.

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And that's sort of the genesis
of an independent college counselor.

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My parents said, "We're hiring
an independent college counselor

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who can help give you
a little guidance on SAT prep,

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and help narrow your focus
for the colleges you're interested in."

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"He'll be a presence in your life

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for the foreseeable future,
until college applications are in."

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[Golden] I believe there were
many students he worked with

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who had very good credentials,

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and he performed
the normal services of a counselor

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and facilitated their admission to college

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by advising them on their essays
or their recommendations and so on.

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He was the go-to
college counselor at that time.

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Back then, there weren't many resources.

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He had this company called Future Stars.
I had many friends that used him.

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It was one of those things
where you had to do it.

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If you didn't,
you'd regret it and worry about,

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"Did I get into where I wanted to go?
Could I have gotten in if I'd used him?"

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He always dressed like he had
just come from the basketball court.

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[Patricia Fels] His idea was that
what he was doing was

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coaching kids for getting into college,

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so therefore he dressed like a coach.

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[Amott] He used to walk around
in his athletic clothes,

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and his little monk hairdo.

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He wasn't necessarily charismatic.

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Didn't crack a lot of smiles.
Was pretty serious.

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Very shrewd. Businesslike.

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He didn't chat much.
He wasn't very personable.

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There are people you meet who feel
like they have this vibrating tension

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right under the surface
all the time, and he was like that.

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[Amott] Rick was always
drumming up business.

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He was always giving presentations
at Borders, at the country clubs.

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And I also knew
what his presentations entailed,

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and they were promises
that he couldn't keep and…

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lies.

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[Fels] I would hear some stories
from kids that made me think

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that he was a little bit fishy.

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A little bit slimy.

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I have one acquaintance
who said that Rick started offering him,

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"Hey, I could potentially
get you into this school

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for a certain amount of money."

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[talking indistinctly]

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[Golden] Almost from the beginning,

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Rick Singer was cutting corners,
at least in a small way.

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The word I got from people
who knew him in Sacramento

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was he was exaggerating and fabricating
on kids' applications.

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You know,
changing their race from white to Latino

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or African American so that they
could qualify for affirmative action.

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I mean, he was quite brazen.

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Because I was always suspicious
of Rick Singer, I started to keep a file.

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I started copying things off his website.

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"The Singer Group has developed
into one of the US's most successful

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life coaching and consulting businesses."

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"Within a year, operations
launched in Singapore, Bangkok,

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Philippines, China, Japan and Korea."

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Rick Singer was frequently telling lies
about his resume.

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Somebody told me that he pretended
he'd been a board member of Starbucks.

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The more he got away with it,
the more he did it.

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[reporter 1] We're still on
the preliminary part of the case.

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But both indictments brought against him
were incredibly detailed.

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[cell phone rings]

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-There appears to be a lot of evidence…
-Yeah.

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[Singer on phone]
Is this Gordon Gekko of Wall Street?

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No, it's Gordon Caplan. How are you?

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I'm just kidding with you. How you doing?

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Yeah. Yeah. Good.

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[reporter 2] Corporate deal lawyer
Gordon Caplan,

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a partner at the law firm
of Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

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[Caplan] The US tax system
has two fundamental components

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which makes this somewhat alluring.

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My wife has told me
a little bit about what you guys do.

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Uh, could… could you just
give me a little bit of background?

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[Singer] Okay. So, who we are.

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We are a $290 million company that I own,

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with a thousand employees
across the US, 280 internationally.

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We help the wealthiest families
in the US get their kids into school.

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We have every NBA owner, every NFL owner.

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We've got everybody.

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Now, these families, they want guarantees.

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They don't wanna be messing around.

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They want this thing done.
So they want in at certain schools.

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So I've done 761,
what I would call, "side doors."

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The "front door"
means getting in on your own.

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The "back door" is making a donation,
which is ten times as much money.

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I've created this kind of side door in

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because with the back door,
there's no guarantee.

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They're just gonna give you a second look.

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My families want a guarantee.

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[officer] I'm a special agent
with the FBI.

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I'm currently part of a squad
that investigates economic crimes,

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including various forms of corporate
fraud, securities fraud and bribery.

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The facts in this affidavit
come from my personal involvement

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with this investigation.

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Hi, my name is Rick Singer,
and I'm the founder of The Key.

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[officer] Rick Singer founded
and operated The Key,

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a for-profit college counseling
and preparation business.

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He also founded
The Key Worldwide Foundation,

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a non-profit corporation that
is exempt from paying federal income tax.

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Rick Singer told parents that he could
facilitate their children's admission

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via what he termed "the side door,"

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a special arrangement in which the parents
would make a donation to his foundation

233
00:12:20,740 --> 00:12:24,160
to conceal the fact
that they were bribe payments.

234
00:12:25,411 --> 00:12:28,539
Between approximately 2011 and 2018,

235
00:12:28,622 --> 00:12:31,584
parents paid Singer
approximately $25 million

236
00:12:31,667 --> 00:12:34,628
to bribe coaches
and university administrators.

237
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:38,632
This is America. Like, you got money?

238
00:12:39,341 --> 00:12:42,970
Best believe you have access to
certain spaces that other kids don't have.

239
00:12:43,053 --> 00:12:45,306
So I'm… I'm really not surprised…

240
00:12:45,389 --> 00:12:47,558
[Jon Reider] Over the last
three or four decades,

241
00:12:47,641 --> 00:12:51,812
higher education
has become increasingly a commodity.

242
00:12:51,896 --> 00:12:55,065
Something that you purchase. A product.

243
00:12:55,149 --> 00:13:00,404
It's a goal in and of itself, rather than
the goal being to get an education.

244
00:13:00,488 --> 00:13:02,948
It's become a status point.

245
00:13:03,532 --> 00:13:05,868
Your status has now increased

246
00:13:05,951 --> 00:13:09,663
because your child is at
what's called an "elite institution."

247
00:13:09,747 --> 00:13:11,916
It's all about bragging rights.

248
00:13:11,999 --> 00:13:16,128
The running line in our industry is like,
"The parents are applying to college."

249
00:13:16,212 --> 00:13:19,507
"The kid is the vehicle
through which they apply to college."

250
00:13:19,590 --> 00:13:21,175
If you're a freshman, I'm sorry,

251
00:13:21,258 --> 00:13:25,596
because you are gonna be thrown
into a world where they're gonna be like,

252
00:13:25,679 --> 00:13:27,431
"College, college, college."

253
00:13:27,515 --> 00:13:29,642
"Go to college.
You have to get the best grades."

254
00:13:29,725 --> 00:13:33,687
"If you're not, you're gonna feel
like a failure. You're the worst."

255
00:13:33,771 --> 00:13:36,315
If you're a parent
and you didn't go to Harvard,

256
00:13:36,398 --> 00:13:40,110
this is your chance to now
go to Harvard, right? In your warped mind.

257
00:13:42,112 --> 00:13:45,783
[Bello] It's typically accepted
that Ivy League institutions

258
00:13:45,866 --> 00:13:48,619
are the "best" in the country.

259
00:13:48,702 --> 00:13:53,707
But all of those differences
have almost nothing to do

260
00:13:53,791 --> 00:13:57,002
with the academics of the institution.

261
00:13:58,003 --> 00:14:00,840
U.S. News started
ranking colleges in the '80s,

262
00:14:00,923 --> 00:14:03,801
based on one criteria: prestige.

263
00:14:03,884 --> 00:14:05,719
That's it. [chuckles] That's it.

264
00:14:05,803 --> 00:14:08,305
"Prestige" is actually a French word.

265
00:14:08,931 --> 00:14:12,726
In the original French,
it means something people don't realize.

266
00:14:12,810 --> 00:14:14,311
It means "deceit."

267
00:14:14,395 --> 00:14:16,772
That's what prestige is in the college.

268
00:14:16,856 --> 00:14:20,442
It's imaginary. It's an illusion.
Yet people believe in it.

269
00:14:20,985 --> 00:14:22,778
It's not just population growth

270
00:14:22,862 --> 00:14:25,489
that makes it harder
to get into colleges today.

271
00:14:25,573 --> 00:14:28,158
The colleges themselves
have brought it about.

272
00:14:28,242 --> 00:14:31,996
Because the more selective they look
on paper, the higher ranked they are.

273
00:14:32,079 --> 00:14:36,208
Everything these schools are doing is
massaging to try and up the rankings.

274
00:14:36,292 --> 00:14:38,252
And it's a really dangerous game.

275
00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:41,213
[Golden] Most people
see college admissions,

276
00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:45,134
"Oh, it's based on merit except for
affirmative action for minorities."

277
00:14:45,217 --> 00:14:49,638
My view of the admissions process
is all sorts of different preferences,

278
00:14:49,722 --> 00:14:52,641
with, yes, some students
getting in on pure merit,

279
00:14:52,725 --> 00:14:56,896
but many others getting in due to
preferences that skew rich and white.

280
00:14:56,979 --> 00:15:02,109
One is by preferences
for students who play niche sports,

281
00:15:02,192 --> 00:15:05,905
like sailing or fencing
or horseback riding,

282
00:15:05,988 --> 00:15:08,532
which most kids never get a chance to try.

283
00:15:08,616 --> 00:15:11,869
Then there's making
a huge donation to a university.

284
00:15:11,952 --> 00:15:14,705
That gets them noticed
by the fundraising office,

285
00:15:14,788 --> 00:15:17,625
which will recommend
the candidate to admissions.

286
00:15:18,208 --> 00:15:21,879
Jared Kushner was the son
of a very wealthy real estate developer

287
00:15:21,962 --> 00:15:23,047
in New Jersey.

288
00:15:23,130 --> 00:15:25,966
At the time Jared was applying to college,

289
00:15:26,050 --> 00:15:29,136
his father pledged
$2.5 million to Harvard,

290
00:15:29,219 --> 00:15:31,347
and Jared was admitted to Harvard,

291
00:15:31,430 --> 00:15:34,266
even though by all accounts
he was an average student

292
00:15:34,350 --> 00:15:37,853
who wasn't necessarily taking
the toughest courses in his high school.

293
00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:41,398
A lot of the colleges
won't actually guarantee the admission,

294
00:15:41,482 --> 00:15:42,733
which is interesting.

295
00:15:42,816 --> 00:15:46,320
So you might write a check for $3 million,
and the kid could be rejected.

296
00:15:46,403 --> 00:15:49,198
If you're not writing
a $10 to $20 million dollar check,

297
00:15:49,281 --> 00:15:51,408
it doesn't move
the needle enough for them.

298
00:15:52,618 --> 00:15:56,455
[Golden] Singer didn't demand
the kind of money that is required today

299
00:15:56,538 --> 00:15:59,500
if you want to absolutely guarantee
your kid's gonna get in.

300
00:15:59,583 --> 00:16:04,964
You know, these parents paid Singer
$300,000, $400,000, $500,000.

301
00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:07,007
What he sold and what they bought

302
00:16:07,091 --> 00:16:11,512
was essentially a certainty of admission
at a bargain basement price.

303
00:16:12,846 --> 00:16:14,848
So I'm gonna make him a kicker.

304
00:16:14,932 --> 00:16:17,810
He does have strong legs.
Maybe he'll become a kicker.

305
00:16:17,893 --> 00:16:19,728
-You never know.
-Yeah. Absolutely.

306
00:16:19,812 --> 00:16:21,313
You could inspire him, Rick.

307
00:16:21,397 --> 00:16:23,816
You may actually turn him
into something. I love it.

308
00:16:23,899 --> 00:16:25,818
[chuckles] Yeah. I know.

309
00:16:25,901 --> 00:16:28,612
-Bill McGlashan, good to see you.
-Nice to be here.

310
00:16:28,696 --> 00:16:32,032
TPG Growth is a firm
people don't know that much about.

311
00:16:32,116 --> 00:16:34,827
[reporter] TPG Growth
is the $4 billion growth arm

312
00:16:34,910 --> 00:16:37,663
of the private equity giant TPG Capital.

313
00:16:37,746 --> 00:16:41,375
The more successful the business is,
the more impact you're creating.

314
00:16:41,458 --> 00:16:45,796
You get the virtuous benefits of
sustainable, scalable capitalism at work.

315
00:16:46,714 --> 00:16:49,591
[Singer] Last year I had a boy,
I made him a long snapper.

316
00:16:49,675 --> 00:16:50,509
I love it.

317
00:16:50,592 --> 00:16:54,013
He was 145 pounds. Long snapper.

318
00:16:54,096 --> 00:16:56,348
[chuckles] So what I'll probably need is,

319
00:16:56,432 --> 00:16:59,309
if you guys have any pictures
of him playing multiple sports,

320
00:16:59,393 --> 00:17:02,771
that will be helpful, because I will
photoshop his face onto a kicker.

321
00:17:02,855 --> 00:17:05,983
[chuckling] Okay. Okay, let me
look through what I have.

322
00:17:06,692 --> 00:17:09,361
Pretty funny the way the world
works these days, it's…

323
00:17:09,987 --> 00:17:10,946
unbelievable.

324
00:17:18,746 --> 00:17:21,582
[reporter] Devin Sloane, he's a
California businessman, an executive.

325
00:17:21,665 --> 00:17:24,168
We've had the good fortune of knowing you

326
00:17:24,251 --> 00:17:27,504
and sharing smiles
and joy and laughter together.

327
00:17:32,551 --> 00:17:35,512
[Singer] Last year, I had a boy
who did the water polo.

328
00:17:35,596 --> 00:17:38,766
When the dad sent me the picture,
he was too high out of the water.

329
00:17:38,849 --> 00:17:41,226
Nobody would believe
anybody could get that high.

330
00:17:41,310 --> 00:17:42,352
[McGlashan] Yeah.

331
00:17:42,436 --> 00:17:43,979
[Singer] So I told the dad, I said,

332
00:17:44,063 --> 00:17:46,940
"What happened?" He said,
"He was standing on the bottom."

333
00:17:47,024 --> 00:17:49,526
I said, "No, no, no, no, no."

334
00:17:49,610 --> 00:17:52,279
Yeah, exactly.
You gotta be swimming. Exactly.

335
00:17:52,362 --> 00:17:54,531
-That's right.
-Now, does he…

336
00:17:54,615 --> 00:17:57,618
Here's the only question.
Does he… Does he know?

337
00:17:57,701 --> 00:18:01,997
Is there a way to do it in a way
where he doesn't know what happened?

338
00:18:02,081 --> 00:18:06,001
Well, what I would say to him,
if you wanna have that discussion now,

339
00:18:06,085 --> 00:18:08,879
is say we have friends in athletics
who are going to help him.

340
00:18:08,962 --> 00:18:10,464
Because he is an athlete.

341
00:18:10,547 --> 00:18:14,134
But I can't say that in front of my son
'cause he knows he's not.

342
00:18:14,218 --> 00:18:16,887
What he would know is
that I'm going to take his stuff

343
00:18:16,970 --> 00:18:18,597
and get him some help, okay?

344
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:20,349
That he would have no issue with,

345
00:18:20,432 --> 00:18:23,602
you lobbying for him,
you helping use your network.

346
00:18:24,311 --> 00:18:27,189
-No issue.
-You don't have to tell him a thing.

347
00:18:27,272 --> 00:18:29,608
[Agustin Huneeus] Is Bill McGlashan
doing any of this shit?

348
00:18:29,691 --> 00:18:31,860
Is he just talking a clean game
and helping his kid?

349
00:18:31,944 --> 00:18:33,695
-He makes me feel guilty.
-[Singer] Um…

350
00:18:33,779 --> 00:18:37,199
Or you taking care of him
because you have other interests with him?

351
00:18:37,282 --> 00:18:40,410
No. No, not at all.
It has nothing to do with his--

352
00:18:40,494 --> 00:18:43,163
But he didn't know. His kid had no idea.

353
00:18:43,247 --> 00:18:45,624
He didn't have any idea
you helped him on the ACT.

354
00:18:45,707 --> 00:18:47,751
-That's what he asked for.
-Bill McGlashan?

355
00:18:47,835 --> 00:18:49,628
Asked for his son not knowing.

356
00:18:49,711 --> 00:18:51,213
-Okay.
-All right.

357
00:18:51,296 --> 00:18:53,882
-So he's not been as forthcoming.
-With me?

358
00:18:53,966 --> 00:18:55,926
With you and with his own kid.

359
00:18:56,552 --> 00:18:57,803
He wants it that way.

360
00:18:58,762 --> 00:18:59,847
[Singer] Your guy Agustin?

361
00:18:59,930 --> 00:19:01,306
[McGlashan] Agustin Huneeus, yeah.

362
00:19:01,390 --> 00:19:04,810
He's pushing hard, trying to find out
your guys' approach with your son.

363
00:19:04,893 --> 00:19:06,937
He came to me, and I said I did not…

364
00:19:07,020 --> 00:19:09,523
I was not willing to talk to him about it.

365
00:19:09,606 --> 00:19:10,941
He's been pushing me, too.

366
00:19:11,024 --> 00:19:14,153
He obviously wants to get your help,
you know, with his daughter,

367
00:19:14,236 --> 00:19:18,157
and I just said, "You need to
make your own call what you wanna do,

368
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:21,702
and you just need to talk
to Rick and work with Rick."

369
00:19:21,785 --> 00:19:22,911
No, that's good.

370
00:19:22,995 --> 00:19:26,081
He's pushing hard. Like,
"You gotta tell me what they're doing."

371
00:19:26,165 --> 00:19:30,210
I said, "Listen, this is their situation,
and Bill is very connected.

372
00:19:30,294 --> 00:19:33,213
You need to discuss this with Bill,
not discuss it with me."

373
00:19:33,297 --> 00:19:35,382
Well, he tried that. He tried that.

374
00:19:35,465 --> 00:19:38,677
Just so you know, he sort of
had a conversation with another family

375
00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:42,514
about the side door approach
you have and was sort of suggesting,

376
00:19:42,598 --> 00:19:45,350
"Do you think this is right?"
And I just said,

377
00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:48,145
"Agustin, you shouldn't be
talking about this.

378
00:19:48,228 --> 00:19:51,356
What Rick does
is very specific to circumstances."

379
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,693
And it just bothered me
he's out there talking about it.

380
00:19:54,776 --> 00:19:56,737
Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. And that's…

381
00:19:56,820 --> 00:19:58,780
And that's what worries me, too.

382
00:19:58,864 --> 00:20:02,492
I said, "Listen, you are in
a very competitive environment."

383
00:20:02,576 --> 00:20:05,037
"You have to keep what you do
to yourself.

384
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:06,496
It will blow up on you.

385
00:20:06,580 --> 00:20:08,874
No matter who you think you know,
it doesn't matter."

386
00:20:08,957 --> 00:20:11,460
That's right,
and he's not discreet at all.

387
00:20:11,543 --> 00:20:14,171
That's why I wasn't comfortable
talking to him about it.

388
00:20:14,254 --> 00:20:15,631
-Good.
-Right.

389
00:20:16,548 --> 00:20:19,718
Rick Singer provided reassurance.

390
00:20:19,801 --> 00:20:23,263
The reassurance
that other people just like you

391
00:20:23,347 --> 00:20:25,515
are going through this thing.

392
00:20:25,599 --> 00:20:27,935
"I've dealt with this a million times."

393
00:20:28,018 --> 00:20:31,730
Rick was like a therapist or a life coach,

394
00:20:31,813 --> 00:20:34,149
only he was also a criminal.

395
00:20:34,858 --> 00:20:38,654
[Justin Paperny] My profile of Rick Singer
is he's a born salesman.

396
00:20:38,737 --> 00:20:40,656
He was smooth and subtle,

397
00:20:40,739 --> 00:20:43,367
not overbearing,
and knew that he had time.

398
00:20:43,450 --> 00:20:45,661
It's not like someone
has to get into school today.

399
00:20:45,744 --> 00:20:48,372
It's not like the test is tomorrow.
They have time.

400
00:20:48,455 --> 00:20:51,875
So he nurtured the process well,
like a good salesman does.

401
00:20:51,959 --> 00:20:54,378
So what sport would be the best for them?

402
00:20:54,461 --> 00:20:57,673
Is… is crew the best?
Is that even gonna really matter?

403
00:20:57,756 --> 00:20:59,258
For me, it doesn't matter.

404
00:20:59,341 --> 00:21:02,261
I'll make him a sailor or something
because of where you live.

405
00:21:03,929 --> 00:21:06,348
[reporter] Massachusetts businessman
John Wilson.

406
00:21:06,431 --> 00:21:08,267
He runs a private equity firm.

407
00:21:08,350 --> 00:21:10,769
He's accused of paying
more than a million dollars

408
00:21:10,852 --> 00:21:13,814
to try to get his kids
into elite universities.

409
00:21:13,897 --> 00:21:17,359
And same kinda deal? Any sport?
You don't have to play the sport?

410
00:21:17,442 --> 00:21:18,694
[Singer] That's correct.

411
00:21:19,403 --> 00:21:23,532
Now, um… what if
they don't actually get in?

412
00:21:23,615 --> 00:21:26,785
[chuckles] You don't have to
worry about it. It's a done deal.

413
00:21:26,868 --> 00:21:28,787
Okay. That's great.

414
00:21:28,870 --> 00:21:32,249
Okay. I'll send you the information
about the bank and the wiring stuff

415
00:21:32,332 --> 00:21:33,667
in the next day or so.

416
00:21:33,750 --> 00:21:34,584
All right.

417
00:21:34,668 --> 00:21:37,462
Oh, by the way,
mark your calendar for next July

418
00:21:37,546 --> 00:21:39,756
if you want in on, uh, Paris.

419
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,509
-Got a big birthday July 19.
-Okay.

420
00:21:42,592 --> 00:21:45,262
-I rented out Versailles.
-[chuckles] Oh, my God!

421
00:21:45,345 --> 00:21:46,638
You're crazy.

422
00:21:46,722 --> 00:21:50,142
I know. A black tie party there,
so you'll have to come.

423
00:21:51,059 --> 00:21:55,314
One of the amazing things
about Rick Singer is that this guy,

424
00:21:55,397 --> 00:21:59,401
from a kind of obscure background
and without a lot to show on paper,

425
00:21:59,484 --> 00:22:02,612
insinuated himself
into quite a high social circle,

426
00:22:02,696 --> 00:22:05,115
and made an awful lot of money doing it.

427
00:22:07,617 --> 00:22:11,163
My sense was that Rick Singer
had a somewhat unhappy childhood.

428
00:22:11,246 --> 00:22:13,582
His parents divorced when he was young.

429
00:22:13,665 --> 00:22:17,294
He was bright. He had
the gift of the gab unquestionably.

430
00:22:17,377 --> 00:22:20,005
After childhood,
he went to several colleges.

431
00:22:20,088 --> 00:22:21,965
After that, he went into coaching.

432
00:22:22,049 --> 00:22:26,845
But his problem was he was too volatile,
particularly as a high school coach.

433
00:22:26,928 --> 00:22:30,140
He tended to scream at the players
if something went wrong.

434
00:22:30,223 --> 00:22:32,893
Kind of like the Bobby Knight
of high school coaching.

435
00:22:32,976 --> 00:22:36,271
When Sacramento State had a bad year,
they went 4 and 24 one year,

436
00:22:36,355 --> 00:22:39,733
the whole coaching staff was fired,
and that included Singer.

437
00:22:39,816 --> 00:22:42,069
That's when he looked around and he said,

438
00:22:42,152 --> 00:22:45,113
"Maybe basketball coaching
isn't for me after all.

439
00:22:45,197 --> 00:22:46,865
I've gotta switch careers."

440
00:22:46,948 --> 00:22:51,578
And he noticed this new industry
of independent college advisors,

441
00:22:51,661 --> 00:22:54,164
and he became the first one in Sacramento.

442
00:22:55,832 --> 00:23:00,462
It's interesting how his background,
in a way, prepared him for this scandal.

443
00:23:00,545 --> 00:23:03,673
If you think about it,
as a basketball coach in college,

444
00:23:03,757 --> 00:23:07,469
he had firsthand exposure
to how athletic admissions worked,

445
00:23:07,552 --> 00:23:11,431
and that was knowledge
that undoubtedly he put to use years later

446
00:23:11,515 --> 00:23:16,103
in his efforts to bribe coaches to portray
kids falsely as recruited athletes.

447
00:23:16,186 --> 00:23:18,855
He knew
athletic admissions from the inside.

448
00:23:19,356 --> 00:23:20,982
[Singer] Hey, John. How are ya?

449
00:23:21,066 --> 00:23:22,901
Hey, Rick. I'm okay.

450
00:23:22,984 --> 00:23:25,570
I'm here
in a big rainstorm in Saudi Arabia.

451
00:23:25,654 --> 00:23:27,656
-[Singer] Saudi Arabia?
-[Wilson] Yeah, I'm in Dubai.

452
00:23:27,739 --> 00:23:30,617
[Singer] I didn't know they had
storms like that out there.

453
00:23:30,700 --> 00:23:33,328
[Wilson] Yeah, I know. Very unusual.
What's happening?

454
00:23:33,412 --> 00:23:37,249
So I just gave the Stanford sailing coach
$160,000 for his program.

455
00:23:37,332 --> 00:23:39,668
While we were
having that conversation, I said,

456
00:23:39,751 --> 00:23:42,462
"Hey, I'm hoping that this
160 I'm helping you with

457
00:23:42,546 --> 00:23:44,297
helps secure a spot for next year."

458
00:23:44,381 --> 00:23:47,968
"Can I be guaranteed
a spot for next year?" And he said yes.

459
00:23:48,051 --> 00:23:49,928
-All it takes?
-No.

460
00:23:50,011 --> 00:23:52,556
-No, that's not all it takes.
-[scoffs] Yeah, okay.

461
00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:55,892
This is not TJ Maxx
or Marshalls or something like that.

462
00:23:55,976 --> 00:23:58,478
-Right.
-So I want you to have first dibs.

463
00:23:58,562 --> 00:24:01,148
If you want, I can provide
John Vandemoer with a check.

464
00:24:01,231 --> 00:24:05,444
I can send him your $500,000
to secure a spot for one of your girls.

465
00:24:06,778 --> 00:24:10,740
John Vandemoer, he was
kind of lured out to Stanford.

466
00:24:10,824 --> 00:24:14,786
He was a successful
sailing coach on the East Coast.

467
00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:16,163
My name is John Vandemoer.

468
00:24:16,246 --> 00:24:20,083
I am the head coach
of the Stanford University sailing team…

469
00:24:20,167 --> 00:24:23,670
By all accounts,
he seemed like a good, upstanding guy.

470
00:24:23,753 --> 00:24:26,673
There were a lot of people
that were surprised, who knew him,

471
00:24:26,756 --> 00:24:29,009
that he got caught up in this.

472
00:24:29,885 --> 00:24:31,636
[man 1] SF1, take eight, soft sticks.

473
00:24:33,472 --> 00:24:34,764
[man 2] Audio good?

474
00:24:34,848 --> 00:24:37,434
[man 3] Almost clear. All clear.
Thank you.

475
00:24:37,517 --> 00:24:38,435
[man 2] Okay.

476
00:24:39,269 --> 00:24:41,980
Did you ever
imagine yourself in this situation

477
00:24:42,063 --> 00:24:43,732
before any of this happened?

478
00:24:43,815 --> 00:24:48,028
Never. It's a lot. It's something
I don't think I've fully comprehended yet.

479
00:24:48,111 --> 00:24:49,279
Um…

480
00:24:49,362 --> 00:24:52,282
But it's something
that'll impact the rest of my life.

481
00:24:56,077 --> 00:24:59,122
I first got connected
with Rick Singer through a phone call.

482
00:24:59,206 --> 00:25:00,707
He called me one day,

483
00:25:00,790 --> 00:25:03,877
he introduced himself,
said he was a college recruiter,

484
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:06,588
and was interested in doing more
with smaller sports.

485
00:25:07,422 --> 00:25:11,218
So I thought it was intriguing and agreed
to meet with him the next morning.

486
00:25:11,301 --> 00:25:15,263
What I thought was interesting is that
I was expecting him to text me or call me

487
00:25:15,347 --> 00:25:16,765
when he got to Stanford.

488
00:25:16,848 --> 00:25:19,017
Because Stanford has… It's very secure.

489
00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:22,687
You have to have a keycard to kind of
swipe in and out of every door.

490
00:25:22,771 --> 00:25:24,981
And somehow he just showed up at my door.

491
00:25:25,065 --> 00:25:27,484
I was shocked by that,
but it definitely told me

492
00:25:27,567 --> 00:25:30,612
he had connections with Stanford
that were deeper than myself.

493
00:25:31,613 --> 00:25:36,159
Rick Singer is kind of your
California beach bum, in a way.

494
00:25:36,243 --> 00:25:38,411
Flip-flops, T-shirt, shorts.

495
00:25:38,495 --> 00:25:42,666
He was actually really easy to talk to.
I had really good conversations with him.

496
00:25:42,749 --> 00:25:45,794
He was really engaging and drawing me in.

497
00:25:45,877 --> 00:25:48,964
Our interaction
was solely about recruiting.

498
00:25:49,047 --> 00:25:51,383
The way recruiting works at Stanford is

499
00:25:51,466 --> 00:25:55,637
each sport is given a certain amount
of spots that you can support.

500
00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:00,600
He kinda ended with him talking about
this young woman named Molly Zhao.

501
00:26:00,684 --> 00:26:06,147
Hello, everyone. I am, um, 17 now.
I've just graduated from high school.

502
00:26:06,231 --> 00:26:09,192
[Vandemoer] Rick said that
she really wanted to go to Stanford.

503
00:26:09,276 --> 00:26:11,403
My recruiting was pretty much
done at that point.

504
00:26:11,486 --> 00:26:15,740
So I wasn't considering her for a spot
I could support, and I had told Rick that.

505
00:26:15,824 --> 00:26:18,910
He contacted me
almost right away and was like,

506
00:26:18,994 --> 00:26:21,162
"Is there any other way
you could support?"

507
00:26:21,246 --> 00:26:22,706
"Her family is pretty wealthy."

508
00:26:22,789 --> 00:26:25,875
"They'd be interested
in donating about a million dollars."

509
00:26:25,959 --> 00:26:29,754
My athletic director said that
it's something Stanford could do,

510
00:26:29,838 --> 00:26:34,634
but that a million dollars wasn't enough
to really have an impact with admissions.

511
00:26:34,718 --> 00:26:38,722
So that was it. And I didn't hear
anything from Rick for a while.

512
00:26:39,472 --> 00:26:41,683
In August of that next year,

513
00:26:41,766 --> 00:26:46,104
Rick called me up out of the blue
and said, "Hey, this is fantastic."

514
00:26:46,187 --> 00:26:49,232
"Molly got in, the family's so excited.
Thanks for all you did."

515
00:26:49,316 --> 00:26:51,192
I said, "Great. I'm excited for her."

516
00:26:51,276 --> 00:26:55,322
"It's a big deal to get into Stanford.
But I didn't really do anything."

517
00:26:55,405 --> 00:27:00,493
He said, "Well, they're really excited and
wanna donate $500,000 to your program."

518
00:27:00,577 --> 00:27:05,040
I said, "If they wanna donate $500,000 to
the sailing program for me doing nothing,

519
00:27:05,123 --> 00:27:07,000
that sounds great to me."

520
00:27:07,542 --> 00:27:12,213
I see no evidence that John did do
anything to get Molly Zhao into Stanford.

521
00:27:12,964 --> 00:27:17,719
Why did Rick Singer donate
$500,000 in the name of Molly Zhao?

522
00:27:17,802 --> 00:27:19,888
Only Rick knows the answer to that.

523
00:27:19,971 --> 00:27:22,349
It may have been a huge down payment

524
00:27:22,432 --> 00:27:24,684
for access
to the Stanford sailing program.

525
00:27:25,268 --> 00:27:28,438
[Vandemoer] He sent the check. I got it
in the mail at my campus mailbox,

526
00:27:28,521 --> 00:27:31,983
and I went in to Development
and told my athletic director

527
00:27:32,067 --> 00:27:34,361
I'd gotten this $500,000 donation.

528
00:27:34,444 --> 00:27:36,738
She was excited for me.
We talked about how

529
00:27:36,821 --> 00:27:39,407
I hadn't done anything for it,
it was out of the blue.

530
00:27:39,491 --> 00:27:42,285
But, you know, I guess
that's the best kind of donation.

531
00:27:42,869 --> 00:27:46,790
At the same time, the head athletic
director for Stanford was there, as well,

532
00:27:46,873 --> 00:27:49,376
and said congratulations,
was excited about it.

533
00:27:49,459 --> 00:27:52,420
I started to explain,
"Hey, it's through this guy, Rick Singer."

534
00:27:52,504 --> 00:27:55,757
He turned to me, interrupted me
and said, "Oh, I know Rick."

535
00:27:57,676 --> 00:28:01,721
[Billy Witz] I think what we see here
is school administration officials

536
00:28:01,805 --> 00:28:03,390
want to keep the money coming in.

537
00:28:03,473 --> 00:28:06,226
They don't wanna ask questions
of how it got there.

538
00:28:06,309 --> 00:28:09,562
And I think we definitely
saw this in the case of Stanford.

539
00:28:09,646 --> 00:28:13,942
When you'd have
$100, $200, $500,000 donations

540
00:28:14,025 --> 00:28:16,903
that would come in
for something like sailing,

541
00:28:16,986 --> 00:28:21,157
that that wouldn't raise any red flags
or wouldn't be scrutinized.

542
00:28:22,033 --> 00:28:25,787
It seems as if Singer
targeted sports that were under the radar

543
00:28:25,870 --> 00:28:28,623
because the margins are tighter.

544
00:28:28,707 --> 00:28:31,042
He knew the right places to look.

545
00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:39,384
So I've got two kids
at Stanford and two kids at Yale.

546
00:28:39,467 --> 00:28:41,678
I'm trying to find out
who's stepping up first.

547
00:28:41,761 --> 00:28:42,929
[Rudy Meredith] Okay.

548
00:28:43,012 --> 00:28:45,724
Don't matter. 'Cause
I might have a spot for both of 'em.

549
00:28:45,807 --> 00:28:47,225
-Really?
-Maybe.

550
00:28:47,308 --> 00:28:53,064
[reporter] Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith
pocketing more than $860,000 in bribes.

551
00:28:53,148 --> 00:28:56,735
[Meredith] You can come in an Ivy League
environment and develop as a player

552
00:28:56,818 --> 00:28:58,903
and still have your Yale degree.

553
00:28:58,987 --> 00:29:00,822
Give me… Give me the names.

554
00:29:00,905 --> 00:29:02,031
I'm working on it.

555
00:29:02,115 --> 00:29:04,993
I got a new athletic director
is what I'm trying to tell you.

556
00:29:05,076 --> 00:29:06,411
I'm trying to work it.

557
00:29:06,494 --> 00:29:08,538
Hold on one sec. Let me just, uh…

558
00:29:09,581 --> 00:29:13,084
You know, I have no idea
where the hell I am here in London.

559
00:29:13,168 --> 00:29:14,544
Mm-hmm. No problem.

560
00:29:14,627 --> 00:29:17,964
Frickin' hate these
one-way street bullshit things.

561
00:29:18,047 --> 00:29:21,176
I know. And you're on the left side
of the road. Be careful.

562
00:29:21,259 --> 00:29:25,013
Yeah, tell me about it.
Now I'm, uh, at two-three.

563
00:29:25,096 --> 00:29:26,681
Where's four-five?

564
00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:29,058
Where the fuck is it?

565
00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:31,770
Now I'm on the main street again.

566
00:29:31,853 --> 00:29:34,397
I tell you what,
I'm glad I live in the US.

567
00:29:34,481 --> 00:29:36,941
[Meredith laughs] It wouldn't be bad
if you were in Sweden.

568
00:29:37,025 --> 00:29:40,153
[Singer] Then I gotta
find myself a good Swedish girl, then.

569
00:29:40,236 --> 00:29:43,531
[Meredith] All right. Next time
I'm in Sweden, I'll take a look.

570
00:29:43,615 --> 00:29:46,409
Tell me what you're looking for,
I'll see what I can do.

571
00:29:46,493 --> 00:29:49,162
Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this much.

572
00:29:49,829 --> 00:29:52,373
At my age,
it's hard to find the right people.

573
00:29:53,249 --> 00:29:54,751
That's the hardest thing.

574
00:29:59,130 --> 00:30:04,469
[Patricia Logan] I met Rick through
my very first time on a dating site.

575
00:30:04,552 --> 00:30:08,097
I'd never been
on a dating site before in my life.

576
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,684
And, at 53 years old
at the time, I figured,

577
00:30:11,768 --> 00:30:14,187
"All right. It's… Let me give it a try."

578
00:30:14,854 --> 00:30:17,816
There he was, and there I was,
and he messaged me, and…

579
00:30:17,899 --> 00:30:19,859
[clicks tongue] it went from there.

580
00:30:20,527 --> 00:30:24,322
When I met him, did I look him up online?
Of course. Right away.

581
00:30:24,405 --> 00:30:26,658
And I thought, "Wow, this guy is…"

582
00:30:26,741 --> 00:30:29,869
Other than
the poor video quality on his website,

583
00:30:29,953 --> 00:30:32,997
I thought,
"This is very interesting, what he does."

584
00:30:33,081 --> 00:30:37,085
My key method unlocks
the full potential of your son or daughter

585
00:30:37,168 --> 00:30:39,796
and sets them
on a course to excel in life.

586
00:30:39,879 --> 00:30:41,756
I thought, "He's really a go-getter."

587
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,467
"He's really out there
doing something good."

588
00:30:46,719 --> 00:30:49,180
I met him out for dinner.
It was interesting,

589
00:30:49,264 --> 00:30:52,517
when we first started
comparing notes about our pasts,

590
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,230
and we both
started working the very same time.

591
00:30:57,313 --> 00:31:00,525
He was 12 and I was 12. [chuckles]

592
00:31:00,608 --> 00:31:01,860
I had a paper route,

593
00:31:01,943 --> 00:31:06,781
and he was the kid
that got the older kids to buy alcohol,

594
00:31:06,865 --> 00:31:10,869
sell to him,
he'd sell it then for a profit to kids.

595
00:31:10,952 --> 00:31:12,871
So I said, "Okay, I had a paper route,

596
00:31:12,954 --> 00:31:15,665
you're a minor
selling booze to minors. Great."

597
00:31:15,748 --> 00:31:18,251
He goes, "Yeah,
I was very industrious." [chuckles]

598
00:31:18,334 --> 00:31:20,962
So we laughed about that.
And he was charismatic.

599
00:31:21,045 --> 00:31:23,548
He was… interesting.

600
00:31:23,631 --> 00:31:25,216
He was smart.

601
00:31:25,300 --> 00:31:28,720
It was quick. It was like,
"Nice to meet you. Great. Good night.

602
00:31:28,803 --> 00:31:33,516
I really like you. When I find time,
let's go out again." [laughs]

603
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,977
-[man] Was he pretty serious?
-Oh, super serious.

604
00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:39,981
One time I sent him an emoji,
the Bitmoji, I said, "Hi."

605
00:31:40,315 --> 00:31:44,277
And he came back with, "You're crazy.
Stay cool in school."

606
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:45,320
Little goofy.

607
00:31:45,904 --> 00:31:48,948
His own family said,
you know, I made him laugh.

608
00:31:49,032 --> 00:31:51,200
[laughs] He needed to laugh more.

609
00:31:51,284 --> 00:31:52,869
He was not, uh…

610
00:31:54,871 --> 00:31:56,623
wanting to stick around long.

611
00:31:57,290 --> 00:32:01,586
He was just so very busy
with college coaching, house to house.

612
00:32:02,837 --> 00:32:05,006
[Golden] Another characteristic
of Singer's

613
00:32:05,089 --> 00:32:07,258
was that, you know, he worked nonstop.

614
00:32:07,342 --> 00:32:10,053
From what his former assistants told me,

615
00:32:10,136 --> 00:32:12,221
he wouldn't spend the night at a hotel.

616
00:32:12,305 --> 00:32:14,098
He'd spend it on an airplane.

617
00:32:14,182 --> 00:32:18,686
And he would be, you know, texting
his assistants at all hours of the day,

618
00:32:18,770 --> 00:32:20,521
giving them various tasks.

619
00:32:20,605 --> 00:32:23,358
He was an extremely driven guy.

620
00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:26,736
[Logan] I got the sense
he had clients all over the place.

621
00:32:26,819 --> 00:32:30,490
I look back on text messages,
and every time we connect, he says,

622
00:32:30,573 --> 00:32:35,244
"I'm in Dallas. I'm in Fort Lauderdale.
I'm in New York. Back to California."

623
00:32:35,328 --> 00:32:38,665
He even lived out of a van
at times when he was coaching.

624
00:32:38,748 --> 00:32:40,917
He had this big Mercedes-type van thing.

625
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,544
He'd sleep in it
'cause it was just easier.

626
00:32:43,628 --> 00:32:44,879
[alarm beeping]

627
00:32:45,713 --> 00:32:49,759
[Logan] Rick had a passion for just
getting up every morning, 4:00 a.m.,

628
00:32:50,343 --> 00:32:53,805
working out, swimming, cycling, running.

629
00:32:53,888 --> 00:32:55,932
That man was like the Energizer Bunny.

630
00:32:56,015 --> 00:32:59,602
I've never seen anybody
that would just have so much energy

631
00:32:59,686 --> 00:33:00,895
and go, go, go.

632
00:33:00,979 --> 00:33:05,608
I think he lived on about three hours
of sleep a night, from my understanding.

633
00:33:05,692 --> 00:33:07,110
And that was fine with him.

634
00:33:08,444 --> 00:33:11,614
I looked at
a lot of his behaviors and realized,

635
00:33:12,198 --> 00:33:14,200
you know, he was hiding a lot.

636
00:33:14,867 --> 00:33:18,830
He had been leading
and living this secret life.

637
00:33:18,913 --> 00:33:21,624
No wonder why
he couldn't get close to people.

638
00:33:23,918 --> 00:33:25,712
-[Huneeus] Hey, Rick?
-[Singer] Hey there.

639
00:33:25,795 --> 00:33:28,047
-Is this a good time?
-Yeah. It's good for me.

640
00:33:28,131 --> 00:33:28,965
Okay, great.

641
00:33:30,508 --> 00:33:32,176
My name is Agustin Huneeus.

642
00:33:32,260 --> 00:33:34,095
We're sitting in one of the pavilions,

643
00:33:34,178 --> 00:33:37,265
enjoying a beautiful afternoon
at Quintessa in Napa.

644
00:33:37,348 --> 00:33:40,143
And so let's go and taste.

645
00:33:40,226 --> 00:33:44,272
Just walk me through the whole kind of
water polo thing again and how it works.

646
00:33:44,355 --> 00:33:48,401
You and I talked about the economics,
timing and how all that works.

647
00:33:48,484 --> 00:33:52,405
You and I had a brief conversation
about it, but I want to get it straight.

648
00:33:52,488 --> 00:33:54,157
Okay. Okay.

649
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,909
I'm putting together
your daughter's sports profile now.

650
00:33:56,993 --> 00:33:59,203
It'll be a water polo profile now.

651
00:33:59,287 --> 00:34:01,664
I take her transcript,
test scores and profile

652
00:34:01,748 --> 00:34:04,042
to the liaison for all sports at USC.

653
00:34:04,125 --> 00:34:06,627
Football… Everybody has to go through her.

654
00:34:09,255 --> 00:34:13,342
[Heinel] My name's Donna Heinel, and I am
a senior associate athletic director.

655
00:34:13,426 --> 00:34:14,302
I have the…

656
00:34:14,385 --> 00:34:18,890
[Witz] By all accounts, Donna Heinel
was a very diligent supervisor

657
00:34:18,973 --> 00:34:22,268
who was really a stickler for details.

658
00:34:22,351 --> 00:34:24,604
She was also getting
20 grand a month from Singer.

659
00:34:25,188 --> 00:34:28,524
And then she…
They have meetings every other Thursday,

660
00:34:28,608 --> 00:34:30,526
which are called subcommittee meetings,

661
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:34,989
where the dean of admissions and two
admissions staff go through the athletes.

662
00:34:35,073 --> 00:34:37,992
It could be water polo
this week, football next week.

663
00:34:38,076 --> 00:34:39,327
It could be basketball.

664
00:34:39,410 --> 00:34:42,997
It depends on where they are
in the seasons and what's going on.

665
00:34:43,081 --> 00:34:44,957
Heinel became the gatekeeper

666
00:34:45,041 --> 00:34:48,920
between the admissions department
and the athletic department.

667
00:34:49,003 --> 00:34:54,133
Because the idea was for the students
to be treated as recruited athletes,

668
00:34:54,217 --> 00:34:56,719
that's virtually a guarantee of admission.

669
00:34:56,803 --> 00:35:01,182
Some of the fake athletes at USC,
it seems like it would be hard to miss.

670
00:35:01,265 --> 00:35:04,268
I mean, there was
a 5'5" men's basketball player.

671
00:35:04,352 --> 00:35:08,397
A high school cheerleader
was made to look like a lacrosse player.

672
00:35:08,481 --> 00:35:12,110
There was a water polo player
who didn't play water polo in high school.

673
00:35:12,193 --> 00:35:15,905
It's pretty remarkable that
none of these things raised a red flag.

674
00:35:15,988 --> 00:35:18,533
And on the rare occasion when they did,

675
00:35:18,616 --> 00:35:22,578
Heinel was there to smooth them over
with the admissions department.

676
00:35:22,662 --> 00:35:26,916
[Singer] Your daughter will get presented,
and if the committee says,"She's in,"

677
00:35:26,999 --> 00:35:30,670
then what happens is
Donna tells me she's in, we're good.

678
00:35:30,753 --> 00:35:33,589
Essentially, she's been admitted
before she even applied.

679
00:35:33,673 --> 00:35:37,343
At that point, you will send
your $200,000 check to our foundation.

680
00:35:37,426 --> 00:35:42,515
Then Jovan will call me and say, "Okay,
this is how I want the money split."

681
00:35:42,598 --> 00:35:45,476
You understand my daughter's
not worthy to be on that team.

682
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:47,311
No, no, he's my guy,

683
00:35:47,395 --> 00:35:50,481
and he knows she's not
coming to play. He knows all that.

684
00:35:51,899 --> 00:35:55,528
There were four USC employees
that were involved with Rick Singer.

685
00:35:55,611 --> 00:35:59,323
One of them was Jovan Vavic,
the water polo coach.

686
00:35:59,407 --> 00:36:04,370
Vavic is by far the most successful
coach in college water polo.

687
00:36:04,453 --> 00:36:09,167
Vavic has been charged by authorities
of accepting more than $250,000

688
00:36:09,250 --> 00:36:14,797
in exchange for helping two students
get into USC as water polo players.

689
00:36:23,514 --> 00:36:27,018
[Singer] Donna Heinel essentially puts
them on the recruited walk-on list,

690
00:36:27,101 --> 00:36:28,436
which happens all the time.

691
00:36:28,519 --> 00:36:32,273
And they just don't show up
for practice, and that's fine.

692
00:36:32,356 --> 00:36:34,859
One of the things Singer took advantage of

693
00:36:34,942 --> 00:36:38,487
was the fact that athletic departments
and admissions offices

694
00:36:38,571 --> 00:36:40,239
both take a coach's word

695
00:36:40,323 --> 00:36:43,451
for the athletic caliber
of the person they're recruiting.

696
00:36:43,534 --> 00:36:46,662
Is there any risk
that this thing blows up in my face?

697
00:36:46,746 --> 00:36:48,706
[Singer] It hasn't in 24 years.

698
00:36:48,789 --> 00:36:51,709
No, I know all that, but the environment…

699
00:36:51,792 --> 00:36:53,461
Like, some article comes out

700
00:36:53,544 --> 00:36:57,423
that the polo team is selling seats
into the school for 250 grand.

701
00:36:57,506 --> 00:37:00,468
Well, no,
because she's a water polo player.

702
00:37:01,552 --> 00:37:02,803
But she's not.

703
00:37:04,513 --> 00:37:05,973
[Chloe] I'm so scared.

704
00:37:06,641 --> 00:37:09,810
[woman] Check it. No matter what happens,
you're gonna be fine.

705
00:37:09,894 --> 00:37:13,022
-[man] You have to face it.
-[woman] You have to face it. Yeah.

706
00:37:13,105 --> 00:37:16,275
-You're gonna be fine. I promise.
-I got deferred.

707
00:37:17,068 --> 00:37:18,194
[woman] You got deferred?

708
00:37:18,277 --> 00:37:19,403
[sobs]

709
00:37:20,238 --> 00:37:22,573
There's an update
in your application portal,

710
00:37:22,657 --> 00:37:25,117
you click on it,
and then that letter pops up.

711
00:37:25,201 --> 00:37:29,330
"We appreciate your passion for
our school. We're sorry to inform you…"

712
00:37:29,413 --> 00:37:32,416
"…we are unable to
offer you admission to Stanford."

713
00:37:35,544 --> 00:37:36,754
[sobbing]

714
00:37:38,381 --> 00:37:42,510
I'm not getting into San Diego or UCLA.

715
00:37:42,593 --> 00:37:44,387
Just makes me feel like shit.

716
00:37:44,929 --> 00:37:48,557
I literally started bawling.
Like, it just angered me.

717
00:37:48,641 --> 00:37:52,645
There were a lot of tears,
punching the wall, cursing.

718
00:37:52,728 --> 00:37:55,856
I didn't leave my room.
I was crying the entire weekend.

719
00:37:55,940 --> 00:37:57,608
I got rejected.

720
00:38:01,904 --> 00:38:05,283
[Priscilla Sands] I have seen a change,
and I have seen a progression.

721
00:38:05,366 --> 00:38:10,288
And I do think that students
are more obsessed with college.

722
00:38:10,371 --> 00:38:14,667
I'd say most kids are getting plagued
by this anxiety, and you can feel it.

723
00:38:14,750 --> 00:38:17,003
They're freaking out
when you meet with them.

724
00:38:17,086 --> 00:38:20,089
They're like, "What if this happens?"
"What about that?"

725
00:38:20,172 --> 00:38:23,426
"Will they not like me
because I wrote this one word?"

726
00:38:23,509 --> 00:38:26,304
It's like they're losing their minds
because of it.

727
00:38:26,387 --> 00:38:30,182
Basically, I got rejected by
almost all of the colleges I applied to.

728
00:38:30,266 --> 00:38:34,020
It's awful because
you think something's wrong with yourself.

729
00:38:34,103 --> 00:38:37,606
When we have children and they apply
to colleges, where will they go?

730
00:38:37,690 --> 00:38:39,817
No one's getting into colleges
at that point.

731
00:38:39,900 --> 00:38:43,696
It's crazy. Like, USC's acceptance rate
just went down three more percent.

732
00:38:43,779 --> 00:38:46,115
It's at 12% now, which is like…

733
00:38:46,198 --> 00:38:49,243
Most students who wanna go
to college could find a college.

734
00:38:49,327 --> 00:38:51,495
The problem is

735
00:38:51,579 --> 00:38:55,249
far too many students
want to go to the same colleges.

736
00:38:55,833 --> 00:38:58,753
My goals were Ivy League.
I wanted to get in that.

737
00:38:58,836 --> 00:39:02,006
And when I didn't get in,
I was… just broken.

738
00:39:02,089 --> 00:39:05,926
I took AP bio. I'm taking
AP environmental science this year. I…

739
00:39:06,010 --> 00:39:08,304
I'm not interested in it at all.

740
00:39:08,387 --> 00:39:11,932
Just to have this
extra leverage that doesn't even help.

741
00:39:12,516 --> 00:39:15,311
[Barbara Kalmus] This is going on
in high schools across the country.

742
00:39:15,394 --> 00:39:17,355
How many advanced classes can you take?

743
00:39:17,438 --> 00:39:20,399
You drop orchestra
because if you don't do orchestra,

744
00:39:20,483 --> 00:39:22,234
you can take another science class.

745
00:39:22,318 --> 00:39:24,653
There's so much pressure on these kids.

746
00:39:24,737 --> 00:39:28,240
Because if a school offers
15 APs and you've only taken one,

747
00:39:28,324 --> 00:39:31,035
you can cross off
the top 50 schools in the country.

748
00:39:31,118 --> 00:39:35,414
You have people who just
go home and all they do is homework.

749
00:39:35,498 --> 00:39:39,293
I hate seeing
how it consumes people's lives.

750
00:39:39,377 --> 00:39:42,171
I think social media
is a contributing factor,

751
00:39:42,254 --> 00:39:46,759
because as soon as
a student anywhere has an acceptance,

752
00:39:46,842 --> 00:39:49,095
it goes onto social media,

753
00:39:49,178 --> 00:39:53,349
so it's just another time
to sort of feel a punch in the gut.

754
00:39:53,432 --> 00:39:56,519
It's just really shitty to feel like this.

755
00:39:56,602 --> 00:40:00,022
And I know that people
that got in are super deserving.

756
00:40:02,149 --> 00:40:06,487
I like to curl my fake lash
with my real lashes.

757
00:40:07,071 --> 00:40:10,991
[Fry] Olivia Jade is an extremely
successful YouTube influencer.

758
00:40:11,075 --> 00:40:14,954
She had millions of followers
watch these videos where she would,

759
00:40:15,037 --> 00:40:18,874
you know, get up, brush her teeth,
do her morning makeup routine,

760
00:40:18,958 --> 00:40:20,709
pick out outfits.

761
00:40:20,793 --> 00:40:22,795
So it's this very diary-like thing,

762
00:40:22,878 --> 00:40:26,465
but with the added benefit
of branding opportunities.

763
00:40:26,549 --> 00:40:29,718
I created my own collection
with Princess Polly.

764
00:40:29,802 --> 00:40:31,720
I get to reveal and announce

765
00:40:31,804 --> 00:40:35,599
my highlight palette
with Sephora Collection.

766
00:40:37,852 --> 00:40:41,021
[Fry] She's the child
of the actress Lori Loughlin

767
00:40:41,105 --> 00:40:44,525
and the fashion designer
Mossimo Giannulli.

768
00:40:44,608 --> 00:40:49,113
They supposedly had both of
their daughters, Olivia Jade and Bella,

769
00:40:49,196 --> 00:40:52,908
pose on a rowing machine,
and sent these pictures to Rick Singer

770
00:40:52,992 --> 00:40:57,079
and had them accepted
into USC as coxswains.

771
00:40:57,163 --> 00:41:01,083
I went to high school with Olivia Jade.
I know the school she was at.

772
00:41:01,167 --> 00:41:06,130
I saw a picture of Olivia Jade's sister
on the wall with the seniors,

773
00:41:06,213 --> 00:41:09,842
and it was like,
"Congratulations for getting into USC."

774
00:41:09,925 --> 00:41:14,805
And then I remember hearing later
that Olivia had also gotten into USC.

775
00:41:14,889 --> 00:41:18,434
I was like, "Whoa."
'Cause USC is extremely hard to get into.

776
00:41:18,517 --> 00:41:21,187
So not only one sister, but both of them.

777
00:41:22,104 --> 00:41:23,272
Off to school.

778
00:41:23,355 --> 00:41:25,149
[Loughlin] Bye, Olivia. Have a lovely day.

779
00:41:25,232 --> 00:41:28,319
-I know you're so excited.
-I won't. I will not.

780
00:41:31,739 --> 00:41:32,615
Whatever.

781
00:41:34,617 --> 00:41:36,327
[Naomi Fry] There's an Olivia Jade video

782
00:41:36,410 --> 00:41:39,747
where it's the first day
of her senior year of high school,

783
00:41:39,830 --> 00:41:42,041
and she's pretty miserable.

784
00:41:42,124 --> 00:41:44,043
I've gone to one class, and I wanna die.

785
00:41:44,126 --> 00:41:46,420
It's so hot in every single room.

786
00:41:46,504 --> 00:41:48,589
I just wanna go home.

787
00:41:48,672 --> 00:41:52,009
Then she returns home
and she says, "I've never been so happy."

788
00:41:52,092 --> 00:41:55,429
I've never been so happy
to be anywhere in my whole entire life.

789
00:41:55,513 --> 00:42:00,559
Then there's also a nod to a kind of,
like, you know, #blessed.

790
00:42:00,643 --> 00:42:02,937
Remember how lucky
we are to have an education

791
00:42:03,020 --> 00:42:05,773
and how many people
would kill to have a good education.

792
00:42:05,856 --> 00:42:09,693
Or an education at all.
So, as much as I hate it…

793
00:42:11,237 --> 00:42:14,823
I still hate it, but I'm grateful
that I get to be educated.

794
00:42:14,907 --> 00:42:16,242
Even though I hate it.

795
00:42:16,325 --> 00:42:19,995
Olivia Jade had said that
she wanted to drop out of high school,

796
00:42:20,079 --> 00:42:21,872
in fact, when she was a senior.

797
00:42:21,956 --> 00:42:26,293
I told my mom I wanted to quit school.
She was like, "That's not happening."

798
00:42:26,377 --> 00:42:30,005
She made me stick it out,
and then my dad made me go to college.

799
00:42:30,089 --> 00:42:34,385
Mostly my parents really wanted me to go,
because both of them didn't go to college…

800
00:42:34,468 --> 00:42:36,303
-They did all right.
-[Olivia] They did fine.

801
00:42:36,387 --> 00:42:37,638
-They did fine.
-[Olivia] Yeah.

802
00:42:37,721 --> 00:42:39,348
-[man] They are--
-Hypocrites.

803
00:42:40,140 --> 00:42:42,851
[Fry] It never seemed
like she was very interested

804
00:42:42,935 --> 00:42:44,436
in what college could give her.

805
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,606
Why should she be? She was
very successful in what she was doing.

806
00:42:48,315 --> 00:42:50,025
Things were going great for her.

807
00:42:53,946 --> 00:42:55,864
[Fry] In November of 2017,

808
00:42:55,948 --> 00:43:00,411
Donna Heinel presented Olivia Jade's
athletic profile to the USC subcommittee,

809
00:43:00,494 --> 00:43:03,581
and they approved her admission
to the university conditionally.

810
00:43:05,457 --> 00:43:06,875
Less than two weeks later,

811
00:43:06,959 --> 00:43:10,462
Rick Singer wrote an email
confirming to Olivia's parents

812
00:43:10,546 --> 00:43:12,923
that she was going to be accepted at USC

813
00:43:13,007 --> 00:43:15,384
and told them
to keep it hush-hush until March.

814
00:43:19,638 --> 00:43:23,726
The guidance counselor at Olivia Jade's
high school became suspicious

815
00:43:23,809 --> 00:43:27,813
because he didn't believe either
of the sisters participated in crew.

816
00:43:28,564 --> 00:43:31,650
According to the government,
Olivia Jade and her parents

817
00:43:31,734 --> 00:43:34,111
discussed how to avoid the possibility

818
00:43:34,612 --> 00:43:38,198
of the high school counselor
disrupting their admissions scheme.

819
00:43:38,282 --> 00:43:42,161
Olivia Jade asked whether she should
list USC as her top choice school

820
00:43:42,244 --> 00:43:46,081
and Lori replied, "Yes, but it might be
a flag for the weasel to meddle."

821
00:43:46,165 --> 00:43:48,208
Presumably referring to the counselor.

822
00:43:48,292 --> 00:43:53,631
And Mossimo added to that, "Fuck him,"
and said that he was a "nosy bastard."

823
00:43:55,424 --> 00:43:58,802
Things began to unravel
when Olivia Jade's counselor

824
00:43:58,886 --> 00:44:01,680
had a phone call
with a USC admissions official.

825
00:44:02,473 --> 00:44:05,225
[man] Conducted routine
counselor call with USC

826
00:44:05,309 --> 00:44:08,228
to check up
on the dozens of applicants that year.

827
00:44:08,312 --> 00:44:09,772
When we got to Olivia,

828
00:44:09,855 --> 00:44:13,400
USC said she was flagged
as a recruit for the crew team.

829
00:44:13,484 --> 00:44:17,237
I told them I had no knowledge
of Olivia's involvement in crew.

830
00:44:17,321 --> 00:44:19,948
Based on what I knew
of her video blogging schedule,

831
00:44:20,032 --> 00:44:22,368
I highly doubted
she was involved in the sport.

832
00:44:22,451 --> 00:44:26,997
[Fry] Somehow Mossimo found out
what the counselor had said to USC,

833
00:44:27,081 --> 00:44:29,166
and went to the school to confront him.

834
00:44:30,292 --> 00:44:31,502
[telephone ringing]

835
00:44:31,585 --> 00:44:33,629
[man] I received a call
from the front desk

836
00:44:33,712 --> 00:44:37,257
that Mr. Giannulli was downstairs
and wanted to talk to me.

837
00:44:37,341 --> 00:44:39,635
When we sat down in my office,

838
00:44:39,718 --> 00:44:43,430
he aggressively asked
what I was telling USC about his daughters

839
00:44:43,514 --> 00:44:48,060
and why I was trying to ruin
or get in the way of their opportunities.

840
00:44:48,143 --> 00:44:50,562
His tone made me visibly nervous.

841
00:44:51,563 --> 00:44:55,693
[Fry] Word of the confrontation
got back to Donna Heinel at USC,

842
00:44:55,776 --> 00:44:59,738
and she left a voicemail for Rick Singer
cautioning about the situation.

843
00:45:00,531 --> 00:45:03,826
[Heinel] Yeah, hey, Rick, look,
I just wanna make sure that,

844
00:45:03,909 --> 00:45:07,204
you know, I don't want the…
the parents getting angry

845
00:45:07,287 --> 00:45:10,624
or creating any type
of disturbance at the school, okay?

846
00:45:10,708 --> 00:45:13,502
I just wanna make sure
that those students,

847
00:45:13,585 --> 00:45:16,964
if questioned at the school,
that they respond appropriately,

848
00:45:17,047 --> 00:45:20,050
that they're walk-on candidates
for their respective sports,

849
00:45:20,134 --> 00:45:22,469
that they're looking forward
to trying out for the team

850
00:45:22,553 --> 00:45:24,555
and making the team when they get here.

851
00:45:24,638 --> 00:45:27,099
That's what I just… wanna make sure of.

852
00:45:27,182 --> 00:45:29,601
I don't want anybody
walking into their high school

853
00:45:29,685 --> 00:45:31,562
and, you know, yelling at counselors.

854
00:45:31,645 --> 00:45:33,605
That'll shut everything down.

855
00:45:35,357 --> 00:45:38,068
[Golden] The scandal did surprise me

856
00:45:38,152 --> 00:45:42,030
because it reflected
a kind of blatant illegality.

857
00:45:42,114 --> 00:45:46,243
Bribing college coaches to pretend
that their children were athletes

858
00:45:46,326 --> 00:45:47,703
when in fact they weren't.

859
00:45:47,786 --> 00:45:51,749
Why would a college coach
jeopardize their job and their reputation

860
00:45:51,832 --> 00:45:54,251
to let somebody in for a bribe?

861
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:00,507
[Vandemoer] Fundraising was
certainly a big part of my job.

862
00:46:00,591 --> 00:46:03,135
Funding going to the football
and basketball programs

863
00:46:03,218 --> 00:46:07,514
are pretty extreme compared to
what a smaller sport like sailing gets.

864
00:46:08,140 --> 00:46:10,934
The school isn't making money
by having a sailing program.

865
00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:14,646
It's great they offer it for students,
but that program is in the red.

866
00:46:14,730 --> 00:46:17,357
That money has to be either
made up for in donations

867
00:46:17,441 --> 00:46:21,445
or the school is just writing a check
for salaries, equipment, travel.

868
00:46:22,237 --> 00:46:24,615
[Vandemoer] My dream would be
if my job was just to coach.

869
00:46:24,698 --> 00:46:26,784
All told, I was horrible at fundraising.

870
00:46:26,867 --> 00:46:28,994
It's not something I really like to do.

871
00:46:29,077 --> 00:46:30,662
But it was done out of necessity.

872
00:46:31,497 --> 00:46:34,208
It was always
a struggle to kind of survive.

873
00:46:36,043 --> 00:46:40,464
In December 2018, all the head coaches
are gonna meet with the senior staff.

874
00:46:40,547 --> 00:46:42,007
It's a big deal, that meeting.

875
00:46:42,090 --> 00:46:45,469
In 11 years, I'd met the senior
athletic director a handful of times.

876
00:46:45,552 --> 00:46:49,306
I'm in the athletic director's office.
There's, like, six of them there.

877
00:46:49,389 --> 00:46:52,559
We'd just won a national championship
less than a month earlier,

878
00:46:52,643 --> 00:46:55,437
and the athletic director
hadn't even recognized it.

879
00:46:55,521 --> 00:46:58,649
Didn't say congratulations,
didn't reach out to the team, nothing.

880
00:46:58,732 --> 00:47:01,151
Didn't say congratulations
during that meeting.

881
00:47:01,235 --> 00:47:03,487
The only thing
he was doing was watching TV.

882
00:47:03,570 --> 00:47:06,824
He was facing, you know,
four or five screens on a wall

883
00:47:06,907 --> 00:47:08,784
and was watching basketball.

884
00:47:08,867 --> 00:47:12,579
The only time he looks up at me
and starts really asking questions

885
00:47:12,663 --> 00:47:14,414
is when it comes to fundraising.

886
00:47:14,498 --> 00:47:16,917
Like, "You're doing a great job
of fundraising."

887
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:18,836
"Keep that up. That's really helpful."

888
00:47:18,919 --> 00:47:22,256
Then he goes back to the television.
That's it for the whole meeting.

889
00:47:22,339 --> 00:47:24,258
[man] This is someone
that knew Rick Singer.

890
00:47:24,341 --> 00:47:26,885
Yes. Yeah, he told me he did.

891
00:47:31,139 --> 00:47:34,935
Rick really was pushing me hard
to really take a look at this student.

892
00:47:35,018 --> 00:47:38,564
He was really interested and knew
I wanted a second assistant coach,

893
00:47:38,647 --> 00:47:41,775
and I was struggling
to fundraise for that position,

894
00:47:41,859 --> 00:47:44,152
and he said, "Hey, through my foundation,

895
00:47:44,236 --> 00:47:48,115
I would like to donate
$110,000 to the program

896
00:47:48,198 --> 00:47:51,785
to get you through
a year or two of funding that position."

897
00:47:51,869 --> 00:47:53,912
He's like, "No strings attached."

898
00:47:53,996 --> 00:47:57,499
"I just wanna continue our relationship
and keep bringing people to you

899
00:47:57,583 --> 00:47:59,209
and have you look at 'em."

900
00:47:59,293 --> 00:48:01,253
I said, "Great. That's fantastic."

901
00:48:01,837 --> 00:48:03,922
[Fisher] I think this was
a slippery slope for John,

902
00:48:04,006 --> 00:48:06,884
and he didn't knowingly wake up and say,

903
00:48:06,967 --> 00:48:11,346
"You know what? Today I'm going to
join this racketeering conspiracy."

904
00:48:11,430 --> 00:48:14,516
But all the government have to prove is
"Did you accept the money

905
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:18,478
in exchange for something
that the giver of the money wanted

906
00:48:18,562 --> 00:48:20,439
and didn't duly earn, didn't deserve?"

907
00:48:20,522 --> 00:48:24,484
The biggest factor
in the Stanford coach's case

908
00:48:24,568 --> 00:48:26,653
was he didn't personally enrich himself.

909
00:48:27,404 --> 00:48:31,450
The proceeds that he received
furthered the sailing program at Stanford.

910
00:48:32,034 --> 00:48:34,953
Rick Singer was skilled
at leveraging off people.

911
00:48:35,037 --> 00:48:37,497
He had a sixth sense to exploit

912
00:48:37,581 --> 00:48:40,375
and find vulnerabilities
of people he was working with.

913
00:48:41,251 --> 00:48:43,712
From my understanding,
in the Felicity Huffman case,

914
00:48:43,795 --> 00:48:45,005
he told Felicity,

915
00:48:45,088 --> 00:48:48,300
"Your daughter's scores aren't good enough
to get into this school."

916
00:48:48,383 --> 00:48:50,052
Turns out that was made up, false.

917
00:48:50,135 --> 00:48:52,429
The daughter
would've gotten in regardless.

918
00:48:52,512 --> 00:48:54,890
It's identifying those pain points.

919
00:48:54,973 --> 00:48:57,142
Felicity can begin to rationalize.

920
00:48:57,225 --> 00:49:00,604
"Am I a good enough mother?
Have I spent too much time on my career?"

921
00:49:00,687 --> 00:49:02,981
"Don't you want
your daughter in a good school?"

922
00:49:03,065 --> 00:49:05,233
Leveraging off the weakness,
the pain point.

923
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:10,197
No, his grades
are not good enough to get into SC.

924
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:12,449
-[McGlashan] Is that right?
-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

925
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:14,660
That's amazing.

926
00:49:14,743 --> 00:49:16,828
Wow. Okay.

927
00:49:17,329 --> 00:49:19,665
What would her chances be
without this process?

928
00:49:19,748 --> 00:49:21,249
-[Singer] Zero.
-She won't get in?

929
00:49:21,333 --> 00:49:23,168
Zero. She has no chance.

930
00:49:23,835 --> 00:49:26,755
What he did well,
like what a good marketer does,

931
00:49:26,838 --> 00:49:28,048
he sold the benefits.

932
00:49:28,131 --> 00:49:29,132
It's very simple.

933
00:49:29,216 --> 00:49:31,802
"Would you like
your daughter to go to Harvard?" "Yes."

934
00:49:31,885 --> 00:49:34,930
"Great. If you'd like
your daughter to go to Harvard, do this.

935
00:49:35,013 --> 00:49:37,849
Here's the reality.
Your daughter's not scoring that well,

936
00:49:37,933 --> 00:49:39,726
been mentoring her for two years.

937
00:49:39,810 --> 00:49:42,396
The kid doesn't get it.
If she's not Harvard material,

938
00:49:42,479 --> 00:49:45,774
and you want her to go to Harvard,
we gotta take a different path.

939
00:49:45,857 --> 00:49:48,735
Here's that path.
We'll have someone take the test for you."

940
00:49:48,819 --> 00:49:49,945
"What do you mean?"

941
00:49:50,028 --> 00:49:53,281
"This guy, for $15,000,
is gonna take the test."

942
00:49:54,032 --> 00:49:55,492
This is absolutely unheard of.

943
00:49:55,575 --> 00:49:57,953
To make this happen,
I can make scores happen,

944
00:49:58,036 --> 00:50:00,330
and nobody on the planet
can make scores happen.

945
00:50:00,414 --> 00:50:04,042
Your kid won't even know it happened.
It will happen as though…

946
00:50:04,126 --> 00:50:07,587
She will think she's really super smart
and she got lucky on a test,

947
00:50:07,671 --> 00:50:08,964
and you got a score now.

948
00:50:09,047 --> 00:50:11,049
It's the homerun of homeruns.

949
00:50:11,133 --> 00:50:13,093
-And it works?
-[Singer] Every time.

950
00:50:13,176 --> 00:50:14,136
[both chuckle]

951
00:50:14,720 --> 00:50:16,722
What is the… What is the number?

952
00:50:17,472 --> 00:50:20,017
The number on the testing
is $75,000, okay?

953
00:50:20,100 --> 00:50:24,563
It's $75,000 to get any scores
you wanna get on the ACT or SAT.

954
00:50:25,063 --> 00:50:28,275
If you wanna get into
an elite university in America,

955
00:50:28,358 --> 00:50:31,903
on the ACT, which is scored out of 36,

956
00:50:31,987 --> 00:50:35,866
if you're not
really in the 34, 35, 36 range,

957
00:50:35,949 --> 00:50:40,662
or on the SAT if you're not
sort of 1500 and above,

958
00:50:40,746 --> 00:50:43,081
you're probably not in the conversation.

959
00:50:44,875 --> 00:50:47,294
[Reider] For many years,
the SAT was explained

960
00:50:47,377 --> 00:50:50,005
and advertised as being an aptitude test.

961
00:50:50,088 --> 00:50:54,843
A very prominent, predictive feature
of getting a high test score…

962
00:50:55,552 --> 00:50:57,387
is family income.

963
00:50:57,471 --> 00:51:01,266
The college board and the ACT
have admitted this for years.

964
00:51:01,349 --> 00:51:03,769
This is not a secret
that's being divulged.

965
00:51:03,852 --> 00:51:07,189
If I were appointed czar
of American college admissions,

966
00:51:07,272 --> 00:51:09,066
I would abolish standardized testing.

967
00:51:09,649 --> 00:51:13,528
It would mean that all of these
wealthy test prep companies

968
00:51:13,612 --> 00:51:15,906
would have to find something else to do.

969
00:51:15,989 --> 00:51:20,744
Register your son or daughter for
the Princeton Review's 1500+ course.

970
00:51:20,827 --> 00:51:22,370
It's a game-changer.

971
00:51:22,454 --> 00:51:25,999
There's a fair warning around
test preparation. This is a business.

972
00:51:26,083 --> 00:51:28,335
Every claim they make is marketing driven.

973
00:51:28,835 --> 00:51:33,924
We even offer a guaranteed score
improvement of at least 150 points.

974
00:51:34,007 --> 00:51:37,010
So you have people out there
who are making claims like,

975
00:51:37,094 --> 00:51:40,097
"We'll improve your score 500 points."

976
00:51:40,180 --> 00:51:42,140
That's worth $1,000 investment.

977
00:51:42,766 --> 00:51:47,562
But it's only worth $1,000 investment if
you have a disposable $1,000 to invest.

978
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:49,898
[Reider] All standardized testing

979
00:51:49,981 --> 00:51:53,985
automatically advantages
the people who are already advantaged.

980
00:51:54,069 --> 00:51:57,239
Most affluent people
are accessing people like me,

981
00:51:57,322 --> 00:52:01,743
and 85% of America
just can't access that level of expertise.

982
00:52:01,827 --> 00:52:04,371
A private college counselor's
gonna run you,

983
00:52:04,454 --> 00:52:06,206
on the low, low, low end,

984
00:52:06,289 --> 00:52:10,210
and you're not getting a quality
college counselor, 200, 300 bucks an hour.

985
00:52:10,293 --> 00:52:14,589
On the high end, you're talking
about $500 to over $1,500 an hour

986
00:52:14,673 --> 00:52:18,927
to access these guys and gals,
and it's a lot.

987
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:21,847
-Hello?
-[woman] Hi, Dad.

988
00:52:21,930 --> 00:52:25,725
[Bello] When you look at it
in light of the scandal,

989
00:52:25,809 --> 00:52:28,019
when you have predominantly rich families

990
00:52:28,103 --> 00:52:32,023
who had every advantage
that said they should be fine on the SAT,

991
00:52:32,107 --> 00:52:34,317
they're gonna score
in the highest demographic,

992
00:52:34,401 --> 00:52:38,697
they had all the prep in the world
that they wanted, and yet they still…

993
00:52:39,281 --> 00:52:40,115
cheated.

994
00:52:40,699 --> 00:52:45,036
Okay, the first thing we need to do,
and I think I mentioned this to your wife,

995
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:48,081
we need to get your daughter
tested for a learning difference.

996
00:52:48,165 --> 00:52:51,710
Let's say it's my person who does it,
or whoever you wanna do it.

997
00:52:51,793 --> 00:52:56,047
I need that person to get her
100% extended time over multiple days.

998
00:52:57,174 --> 00:53:01,261
[Bello] When you take the SAT
or the ACT, it's a timed test. Right?

999
00:53:01,344 --> 00:53:03,513
There are restrictions
on how it's delivered.

1000
00:53:03,597 --> 00:53:08,310
To account for learning disabilities,
often accommodations are provided.

1001
00:53:08,894 --> 00:53:11,271
You have to have
certain medical documentation

1002
00:53:11,354 --> 00:53:13,565
of the need for these accommodations.

1003
00:53:13,648 --> 00:53:17,694
And that's one of the avenues
that Rick Singer exploited.

1004
00:53:17,777 --> 00:53:20,906
I also need to tell your daughter,
that when she takes the test,

1005
00:53:20,989 --> 00:53:22,115
to not be as…

1006
00:53:22,407 --> 00:53:23,700
To be stupid.

1007
00:53:23,783 --> 00:53:25,619
To not be as smart as she is.

1008
00:53:25,702 --> 00:53:27,913
The goal is to be slow,

1009
00:53:27,996 --> 00:53:30,832
to not be as bright as she is, all that,

1010
00:53:30,916 --> 00:53:33,210
so that we show discrepancies.

1011
00:53:34,044 --> 00:53:36,796
At the academy,
kids are getting extra time all the time.

1012
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:38,840
-[Caplan] You mean the Greenwich Academy?
-Yeah.

1013
00:53:38,924 --> 00:53:40,550
Everywhere in the country.

1014
00:53:40,634 --> 00:53:43,762
What happened is,
all the wealthy families figured out,

1015
00:53:43,845 --> 00:53:46,806
"If I get my kid tested
and they get extended time,

1016
00:53:46,890 --> 00:53:48,642
they can do better on the test."

1017
00:53:48,725 --> 00:53:52,229
Most of these kids don't have issues.
But they're getting extra time.

1018
00:53:52,312 --> 00:53:54,147
The playing field's not fair.

1019
00:53:54,231 --> 00:53:55,315
No, it's not.

1020
00:53:55,982 --> 00:53:57,442
I mean, this is… I…

1021
00:53:57,525 --> 00:53:59,611
To be honest,
it feels a little weird, but--

1022
00:53:59,694 --> 00:54:01,988
I know it does. I know it does.

1023
00:54:02,072 --> 00:54:06,451
But when she gets a score and we have
choices, you're gonna be saying,

1024
00:54:06,534 --> 00:54:09,913
"Okay, I'll take all my kids.
We're gonna do the same thing."

1025
00:54:09,996 --> 00:54:13,250
And a score of…
You would think that would be…

1026
00:54:13,333 --> 00:54:15,835
[Singer] The score will be
whatever we want it to be.

1027
00:54:15,919 --> 00:54:19,631
So, again, and keep in mind I am a lawyer,

1028
00:54:19,714 --> 00:54:21,675
so I'm sort of rules-oriented.

1029
00:54:22,425 --> 00:54:26,638
Doing this with you, no way…
She's taking the test. It's…

1030
00:54:26,721 --> 00:54:30,392
It's her taking the test, right?
There's no way any trouble comes of this?

1031
00:54:30,475 --> 00:54:31,601
Nothing like that?

1032
00:54:31,685 --> 00:54:33,186
So, I, uh…

1033
00:54:34,521 --> 00:54:36,356
I explained this to you before.

1034
00:54:36,439 --> 00:54:38,024
[Caplan] I… I know.

1035
00:54:38,108 --> 00:54:41,194
-And I apologize, but it's just--
-[Singer] No. I get you.

1036
00:54:41,278 --> 00:54:42,821
-Bear with me.
-[Singer] Okay.

1037
00:54:43,405 --> 00:54:45,407
I will explain to you the process.

1038
00:54:46,408 --> 00:54:49,577
You're going to fly to LA
and go on a fake recruiting visit.

1039
00:54:50,203 --> 00:54:52,580
You'll visit some schools
while you're out here.

1040
00:54:52,664 --> 00:54:55,917
Then what'll happen is Mark,
who is the proctor, will fly in,

1041
00:54:56,001 --> 00:54:59,004
and he'll show up on Friday night,
just like you guys would.

1042
00:54:59,087 --> 00:55:02,924
On Saturday morning, at eight o'clock,
you guys will show up at the school.

1043
00:55:03,925 --> 00:55:06,469
Your daughter
will go in and take the test.

1044
00:55:06,553 --> 00:55:08,388
Mark will be your proctor.

1045
00:55:08,471 --> 00:55:11,266
She'll be the only one taking it
in the room with Mark.

1046
00:55:11,349 --> 00:55:14,185
What we do with kids
who have learning differences

1047
00:55:14,269 --> 00:55:17,439
is they write their answers
on a separate sheet to the side of it

1048
00:55:17,522 --> 00:55:18,690
so that we can rebubble.

1049
00:55:18,773 --> 00:55:21,151
She'll think that
when she's done with the test,

1050
00:55:21,234 --> 00:55:23,320
she has taken the test. No doubt about it.

1051
00:55:23,403 --> 00:55:25,697
She'll walk out the door
and she'll say to you,

1052
00:55:25,780 --> 00:55:28,283
"Dad, it was so hard," or, "I'm so tired,"

1053
00:55:28,366 --> 00:55:31,202
or whatever
the typical reaction out of the kid.

1054
00:55:31,703 --> 00:55:34,956
You guys will leave, and then
Mark will look at all her answers.

1055
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:36,791
Mark will then take the exam

1056
00:55:36,875 --> 00:55:40,795
and then ensure that whatever score
we decide that we want to get,

1057
00:55:40,879 --> 00:55:42,172
he has it down to a…

1058
00:55:42,255 --> 00:55:44,466
It's unbelievable what he can do.

1059
00:55:45,342 --> 00:55:47,761
She'll never know
that this actually occurred.

1060
00:55:47,844 --> 00:55:53,224
She'll look at her results and she'll say,
"Oh, my God, Dad, I got a 32."

1061
00:56:01,232 --> 00:56:03,068
[reporter] He's the test-taking whiz

1062
00:56:03,151 --> 00:56:07,572
who helped dozens of high school students
cheat on their college entrance exam.

1063
00:56:07,655 --> 00:56:11,993
Mark Riddell was the one who was
flying out to different testing locations

1064
00:56:12,077 --> 00:56:13,870
and proctoring or correcting answers.

1065
00:56:13,953 --> 00:56:17,624
I have a client
whose daughter was a big tennis player

1066
00:56:17,707 --> 00:56:19,918
and studied with him years ago.

1067
00:56:20,001 --> 00:56:26,633
He was a Harvard graduate who worked in
college exam prep for IMG Academy,

1068
00:56:26,716 --> 00:56:30,136
which is a school for athletes
in Bradenton, Florida,

1069
00:56:30,220 --> 00:56:32,389
where Serena and Venus Williams went.

1070
00:56:32,472 --> 00:56:34,057
[Andy Lockwood] Very unassuming guy.

1071
00:56:34,140 --> 00:56:38,645
But the story was after he had
his first child and needed more money,

1072
00:56:38,728 --> 00:56:42,482
that's how he kind of got caught up
in the pitch from Rick Singer

1073
00:56:42,565 --> 00:56:45,568
to make a few extra
thousand dollars here and there.

1074
00:56:46,361 --> 00:56:49,906
He did not have inside information
about the correct answers.

1075
00:56:49,989 --> 00:56:54,494
He was just smart enough
to get a near-perfect score on demand.

1076
00:56:54,577 --> 00:57:00,041
If Rick Singer is the linchpin
of this college admissions scandal,

1077
00:57:00,125 --> 00:57:02,961
then Mark Riddell is the brains.

1078
00:57:03,044 --> 00:57:05,880
[Bello] One of the things
that amuses me and annoys me

1079
00:57:05,964 --> 00:57:10,427
when I see most of the reports
around him being a test-taking savant,

1080
00:57:10,510 --> 00:57:13,596
or whatever they choose
to call him in the moment, um…

1081
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:17,809
He's an adult who's taking a test
designed for 11th graders.

1082
00:57:17,892 --> 00:57:22,230
Anyone worth their salt
in the test preparation industry

1083
00:57:22,313 --> 00:57:24,607
should be able to do what he did.

1084
00:57:24,691 --> 00:57:27,068
The question is
would they be willing to do it.

1085
00:57:27,610 --> 00:57:30,363
[reporter] Singer, the admitted
mastermind behind the scheme,

1086
00:57:30,447 --> 00:57:32,991
paid Riddell $10,000 per test

1087
00:57:33,074 --> 00:57:37,745
to fly from his home in Florida
to test centers in Texas and California.

1088
00:57:37,829 --> 00:57:39,998
[Bello] Pretty much everything
in the higher ed system

1089
00:57:40,081 --> 00:57:42,834
is based on trust in other people.

1090
00:57:42,917 --> 00:57:46,838
At what dollar value will you be
willing to compromise your ethics?

1091
00:57:46,921 --> 00:57:48,548
That's the ultimate question.

1092
00:57:48,631 --> 00:57:53,553
For me, it keeps coming back to,
it's the wealthy who have the ability,

1093
00:57:53,636 --> 00:57:56,181
and, in this case,
the means and the willingness,

1094
00:57:56,264 --> 00:57:58,349
to take advantage of these things.

1095
00:57:59,142 --> 00:58:00,977
[Janavs] Rick, I had a question for you.

1096
00:58:01,060 --> 00:58:03,771
I was able to get
my younger daughter the multi-day ACT.

1097
00:58:03,855 --> 00:58:06,983
[Singer] Good. You got her extended time
over multiple days. Got it.

1098
00:58:07,066 --> 00:58:08,443
Yeah, so I got that.

1099
00:58:08,526 --> 00:58:11,821
The thing is, my younger daughter
is not like my older daughter.

1100
00:58:11,905 --> 00:58:12,864
She's not stupid.

1101
00:58:12,947 --> 00:58:15,742
If I said to her,
"Oh, we're gonna take it up at Rick's,"

1102
00:58:15,825 --> 00:58:17,202
she's gonna wonder why.

1103
00:58:19,037 --> 00:58:20,413
[reporter] Michelle Janavs,

1104
00:58:20,497 --> 00:58:23,666
whose family created
the famous snack Hot Pockets,

1105
00:58:23,750 --> 00:58:28,213
accused of paying 100 grand
to boost her daughter's ACT score

1106
00:58:28,296 --> 00:58:32,091
and get her into USC
as a bogus volleyball recruit.

1107
00:58:32,175 --> 00:58:34,719
[Janavs] How do you do this
without telling the kids?

1108
00:58:34,802 --> 00:58:38,014
Well, in most cases, Michelle,
none of the kids know.

1109
00:58:38,097 --> 00:58:39,182
Right, but how…

1110
00:58:39,265 --> 00:58:42,852
No, I understand she won't even know,
but how do you explain it to her?

1111
00:58:43,436 --> 00:58:44,896
You don't have to say anything.

1112
00:58:44,979 --> 00:58:47,774
For the school,
say you'll be up in LA for the weekend.

1113
00:58:47,857 --> 00:58:49,776
[Janavs] That's what we did last time.

1114
00:58:49,859 --> 00:58:52,445
My younger daughter
is the issue, because she'll say,

1115
00:58:52,529 --> 00:58:54,614
"Like, why am I taking it up there?"

1116
00:58:54,697 --> 00:58:57,951
You'll just say that,
"You're going to do it up here

1117
00:58:58,034 --> 00:59:01,204
because it's really easy.
It's convenient."

1118
00:59:02,121 --> 00:59:07,835
I thought the conversations that were
recorded on tape were achingly poignant.

1119
00:59:07,919 --> 00:59:10,964
You ache for the children
who read these transcripts,

1120
00:59:11,047 --> 00:59:13,841
and you may also ache
for the parents who, I'm sure,

1121
00:59:13,925 --> 00:59:15,927
bitterly regret being so candid.

1122
00:59:16,844 --> 00:59:17,887
She's smart.

1123
00:59:18,596 --> 00:59:20,306
She's gonna figure this out.

1124
00:59:21,015 --> 00:59:22,225
She's gonna say to me…

1125
00:59:23,142 --> 00:59:26,729
She already thinks that I'm,
like, up to no good, and I just…

1126
00:59:27,230 --> 00:59:29,190
I didn't wanna talk about this with her.

1127
00:59:29,274 --> 00:59:32,277
No, no, yeah, I got it. I totally get it.

1128
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:34,862
[Janavs] She's totally different
than my older daughter.

1129
00:59:34,946 --> 00:59:36,864
Like, she really needs to think that…

1130
00:59:36,948 --> 00:59:39,826
My older daughter was like,
"I don't really care."

1131
00:59:39,909 --> 00:59:42,161
"This test is bullshit.
I don't wanna take it."

1132
00:59:42,245 --> 00:59:45,999
And my younger daughter is
actually studying to try to get a 34.

1133
00:59:46,082 --> 00:59:46,958
So it would…

1134
00:59:47,750 --> 00:59:49,919
It would actually be a great boost to her.

1135
00:59:50,003 --> 00:59:52,672
My older daughter,
she came to me and she was like,

1136
00:59:52,755 --> 00:59:55,008
"You're not gonna
tell my sister, are you?"

1137
00:59:55,091 --> 00:59:56,926
And I was like, "No."

1138
00:59:57,927 --> 00:59:59,095
It's weird.

1139
00:59:59,679 --> 01:00:03,182
It's just weird family dynamics,
but every kid is different.

1140
01:00:04,142 --> 01:00:04,976
Cool.

1141
01:00:11,316 --> 01:00:14,652
[Golden] Rick Singer's lifestyle
did change and become more lavish.

1142
01:00:14,736 --> 01:00:17,697
He moved from
Sacramento area to Newport Beach

1143
01:00:17,780 --> 01:00:20,158
and had a very nice house there.

1144
01:00:21,117 --> 01:00:25,079
Singer invested
in a whole bunch of quixotic ventures.

1145
01:00:25,163 --> 01:00:29,542
Restaurants, a soccer team,
and many other things.

1146
01:00:29,626 --> 01:00:31,127
So the money came in fast

1147
01:00:31,210 --> 01:00:35,131
and it seems to have gone out pretty fast
to his lifestyle and his investments.

1148
01:00:37,550 --> 01:00:38,926
[cell phone ringing]

1149
01:00:39,552 --> 01:00:41,387
[Logan] Rick called me
out of the blue and said,

1150
01:00:41,471 --> 01:00:43,306
"I haven't talked to you in a year.

1151
01:00:43,389 --> 01:00:46,184
I remember you
being extremely sharp with marketing

1152
01:00:46,267 --> 01:00:48,478
in the restaurant business,
in real estate.

1153
01:00:48,561 --> 01:00:51,105
I think you'd be perfect
as opening up and running

1154
01:00:51,189 --> 01:00:54,901
one of my offshoot companies
of my coaching business."

1155
01:00:54,984 --> 01:00:56,944
And I thought they sounded great.

1156
01:00:59,572 --> 01:01:03,618
Rick had invited a group of us
to a big conference up in LA

1157
01:01:03,701 --> 01:01:06,162
with all these
very high-powered individuals.

1158
01:01:06,245 --> 01:01:09,165
From my understanding,
there was an influx of many millions

1159
01:01:09,248 --> 01:01:12,460
coming in to help him
launch some of these businesses.

1160
01:01:12,543 --> 01:01:14,420
We all were assigned our positions,

1161
01:01:14,504 --> 01:01:18,007
and then we all took off to start up
these brand-new companies.

1162
01:01:18,091 --> 01:01:19,258
It was really exciting.

1163
01:01:19,842 --> 01:01:22,136
Rick offered to drive us
back to the airport.

1164
01:01:22,220 --> 01:01:26,182
[chuckling] So we get in his Tesla,
and it's rush hour traffic.

1165
01:01:26,265 --> 01:01:31,020
Rick is zipping in and out of traffic,
going 90 miles an hour.

1166
01:01:31,104 --> 01:01:33,439
We were on the edge of our seats,
hanging on.

1167
01:01:35,233 --> 01:01:38,277
So we finally
get to the airport in one piece.

1168
01:01:38,361 --> 01:01:41,364
He said, "Bye. Good to see you again.
I'll see you soon."

1169
01:01:41,447 --> 01:01:44,826
Go to give him a hug,
and he plants a kiss on me. [laughs]

1170
01:01:44,909 --> 01:01:47,829
And I said, "What was that all about?"

1171
01:01:47,912 --> 01:01:50,915
And he says, "Well, I wanted to see.

1172
01:01:50,998 --> 01:01:55,628
Maybe there's something here.
Maybe we could date."

1173
01:01:56,254 --> 01:01:59,716
I looked at him and said, "You know what?
I knew you from back when.

1174
01:01:59,799 --> 01:02:04,762
The amount of time that you spend
with your career, with your businesses,

1175
01:02:04,846 --> 01:02:08,099
the little amount of time
you'd even have to return a phone call,

1176
01:02:08,182 --> 01:02:13,521
let alone send a two-line text is…
We'll never work."

1177
01:02:18,484 --> 01:02:20,027
My name is Rick Singer.

1178
01:02:20,111 --> 01:02:23,114
My job is to life coach kids and families

1179
01:02:23,197 --> 01:02:25,408
through the process
of getting into college.

1180
01:02:25,491 --> 01:02:27,535
We have families in Champaign, in Miami.

1181
01:02:27,618 --> 01:02:32,123
They send their plane to come pick me up,
come to the meeting for a couple hours,

1182
01:02:32,206 --> 01:02:35,418
put me back on the plane,
send me to the next place I need to go.

1183
01:02:35,501 --> 01:02:36,419
It's amazing.

1184
01:02:36,502 --> 01:02:41,466
[Logan] When I watched that video
that he sent to do this reality show,

1185
01:02:41,549 --> 01:02:43,509
it was a bit shocking to me.

1186
01:02:43,593 --> 01:02:47,388
We work in the home of all these families,
so we know them intimately.

1187
01:02:47,472 --> 01:02:50,725
I know what their bedrooms look like,
what the laundry room looks like.

1188
01:02:50,808 --> 01:02:52,894
How they get along. So I know where…

1189
01:02:52,977 --> 01:02:57,857
I thought, "Really? You're gonna put
yourself out there like that for this?"

1190
01:02:57,940 --> 01:03:01,235
It just didn't make sense.
Everything was so private with him.

1191
01:03:01,319 --> 01:03:03,821
The whole time they're yelling,
"It's my life!

1192
01:03:03,905 --> 01:03:06,407
If you go to this school…
It's the wrong school.

1193
01:03:06,491 --> 01:03:10,244
I don't wanna pay 50,000
to go to this school!" Unbelievable.

1194
01:03:10,328 --> 01:03:11,662
It just didn't make sense,

1195
01:03:11,746 --> 01:03:17,418
especially at the caliber of the coach
that I, you know, believed that he was.

1196
01:03:19,128 --> 01:03:22,757
He didn't have
a lot of time for people in his life.

1197
01:03:23,299 --> 01:03:26,928
He was married for years,
and he has a son.

1198
01:03:27,011 --> 01:03:30,556
When I met him, he was divorced
probably six, seven years.

1199
01:03:31,390 --> 01:03:33,559
He'd say, "I'll only do this coaching

1200
01:03:33,643 --> 01:03:37,605
for another three, four,
maybe five years, and then I'm done."

1201
01:03:40,316 --> 01:03:43,319
I don't know.
I really don't know what made him happy

1202
01:03:43,402 --> 01:03:46,364
or what his desires even were.

1203
01:03:46,864 --> 01:03:48,991
It's almost like on a rat wheel,

1204
01:03:49,075 --> 01:03:54,288
trying to get to a means to an end,
and there was really no end in sight.

1205
01:03:59,794 --> 01:04:03,589
[Caplan] So I… It's just you and me.
I mean, is that kosher? Can we--

1206
01:04:03,673 --> 01:04:04,674
[Singer] Absolutely.

1207
01:04:04,757 --> 01:04:07,134
Part of the reason
I'm taking my wife off this,

1208
01:04:07,218 --> 01:04:09,971
she's very nervous
about all this, and I just…

1209
01:04:10,054 --> 01:04:13,975
Uh, I wanna have a… um…
Let me ask you straight up.

1210
01:04:14,058 --> 01:04:17,895
You've never had an issue with this?
No one's ever gotten in trouble with this?

1211
01:04:17,979 --> 01:04:19,522
Never had an issue with anybody.

1212
01:04:20,189 --> 01:04:21,899
[Caplan] Could you ever
see that happening?

1213
01:04:21,983 --> 01:04:23,150
I'm not…

1214
01:04:24,402 --> 01:04:25,736
I've never seen it happen.

1215
01:04:25,820 --> 01:04:29,156
[Caplan] What I'm asking is
could this ever get back to my daughter

1216
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:30,867
or to the family?

1217
01:04:30,950 --> 01:04:33,327
I mean, this comes out… I, uh…

1218
01:04:33,411 --> 01:04:36,414
[chuckles] I don't…
I don't even wanna know what you guys do.

1219
01:04:36,497 --> 01:04:39,709
I'm just…
Uh, Rick, so you… you understand--

1220
01:04:39,792 --> 01:04:41,377
No, I totally get it.

1221
01:04:41,460 --> 01:04:44,422
[Caplan] You're absolutely confident
there's no issue here?

1222
01:04:45,256 --> 01:04:46,090
[chuckles]

1223
01:04:46,173 --> 01:04:48,217
We've been doing this for a long time.

1224
01:04:48,301 --> 01:04:49,886
[Caplan] Let me put it differently.

1225
01:04:49,969 --> 01:04:53,639
If somebody were to catch this,
what happens?

1226
01:04:53,723 --> 01:04:57,101
The only way someone can catch it
is if you guys tell someone.

1227
01:04:57,184 --> 01:04:59,520
-[Caplan] I'm not gonna tell anybody.
-Well?

1228
01:04:59,604 --> 01:05:01,147
[Caplan] It's just…

1229
01:05:01,230 --> 01:05:04,483
To be honest, I'm not
worried about the moral issue here.

1230
01:05:04,567 --> 01:05:06,652
I'm worried about the…

1231
01:05:06,736 --> 01:05:10,281
She gets caught doing that,
you know, she's finished.

1232
01:05:10,364 --> 01:05:12,116
So I… I just, uh…

1233
01:05:12,199 --> 01:05:14,869
It's never happened before
in 20-some-odd years.

1234
01:05:14,952 --> 01:05:16,871
The only thing that can happen is if--

1235
01:05:16,954 --> 01:05:20,708
-[Caplan] Someone talks.
-Yeah, if she tells somebody.

1236
01:05:20,791 --> 01:05:23,878
[Caplan] Oh, yeah.
I, uh… She… She won't talk.

1237
01:05:28,925 --> 01:05:33,846
Singer didn't make a fateful mistake
that led to his being, uh, exposed.

1238
01:05:33,930 --> 01:05:36,474
What happened
is that somebody was arrested

1239
01:05:36,557 --> 01:05:39,310
on an unrelated securities charge,

1240
01:05:39,393 --> 01:05:41,687
and that person traded information.

1241
01:05:42,355 --> 01:05:43,856
That financial executive said,

1242
01:05:43,940 --> 01:05:47,902
"You may be interested to know that
a coach at Yale asked me for a bribe."

1243
01:05:47,985 --> 01:05:50,446
A gentleman by the name of Rudy Meredith,

1244
01:05:50,529 --> 01:05:55,159
who had been working with parents
to get their children into Yale

1245
01:05:55,242 --> 01:05:59,121
under the guise
that they were going to be soccer players.

1246
01:05:59,205 --> 01:06:01,624
The first question they ask Mr. Meredith

1247
01:06:01,707 --> 01:06:04,710
after they investigated
and indicted him was,

1248
01:06:04,794 --> 01:06:07,088
"Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

1249
01:06:07,171 --> 01:06:10,132
"Yes, there is.
There's a gentleman named Rick Singer

1250
01:06:10,216 --> 01:06:11,550
who I'd like to introduce you to,

1251
01:06:11,634 --> 01:06:16,180
and I'm happy to cooperate against him
because I don't wanna go to prison."

1252
01:06:16,263 --> 01:06:19,517
So just like that,
Rudy Meredith is a cooperating informant.

1253
01:06:19,600 --> 01:06:21,394
Then he cooperates against Singer.

1254
01:06:23,479 --> 01:06:24,730
[cell phone dings]

1255
01:06:33,364 --> 01:06:34,657
[cell phone dings]

1256
01:06:38,202 --> 01:06:39,745
[cell phone dings]

1257
01:06:51,590 --> 01:06:52,675
Thank you.

1258
01:07:16,198 --> 01:07:17,033
Hi, Rick.

1259
01:07:21,704 --> 01:07:23,247
Why don't you step inside?

1260
01:07:29,795 --> 01:07:31,005
[door creaking]

1261
01:07:33,340 --> 01:07:35,134
[Singer]
It will happen as though…

1262
01:07:35,217 --> 01:07:38,387
She will think she's really super smart
and she got lucky on a test,

1263
01:07:38,471 --> 01:07:39,930
and you got a score now.

1264
01:07:40,014 --> 01:07:41,766
It's the home run of home runs.

1265
01:07:41,849 --> 01:07:43,809
-[Caplan] And it works?
-[Singer] Every time.

1266
01:07:43,893 --> 01:07:45,061
[Singer and Caplan chuckle]

1267
01:07:50,566 --> 01:07:53,402
[agent] Singer agreed
to cooperate with our investigation

1268
01:07:53,486 --> 01:07:55,112
and to be interviewed.

1269
01:07:55,196 --> 01:07:58,657
However, he was not fully forthcoming
regarding parts of his scheme,

1270
01:07:58,741 --> 01:08:01,619
and it was my impression
that he was not taking

1271
01:08:01,702 --> 01:08:04,080
full responsibility for his conduct.

1272
01:08:04,163 --> 01:08:06,665
Singer told us that
the payments he and his clients

1273
01:08:06,749 --> 01:08:10,669
made to university
athletics programs were donations.

1274
01:08:10,753 --> 01:08:13,297
We informed him that a payment in exchange

1275
01:08:13,380 --> 01:08:17,259
for recruiting a fake student athlete
to an athletic team is illegal.

1276
01:08:18,177 --> 01:08:21,222
The next day,
after consulting with his attorney,

1277
01:08:21,305 --> 01:08:24,475
Singer agreed
to consensually record phone calls

1278
01:08:24,558 --> 01:08:27,311
with other individuals
involved in his scheme.

1279
01:08:27,895 --> 01:08:31,732
For those calls,
we instructed Singer to engage in a ruse.

1280
01:08:35,569 --> 01:08:39,031
[Singer] Uh, so the reason
I'm calling is, uh, so,

1281
01:08:39,115 --> 01:08:42,243
uh, my foundation is getting audited now.

1282
01:08:42,326 --> 01:08:45,037
-Oh. Well, that sucks.
-[Singer] Uh… Yeah. Right?

1283
01:08:45,121 --> 01:08:47,665
-They're going back like they always do.
-Yeah.

1284
01:08:47,748 --> 01:08:50,751
[reporter 1] Elizabeth and
Manuel Henriquezof Atherton.

1285
01:08:50,835 --> 01:08:54,213
[reporter 2] They're accused
of paying $400,000 in bribes.

1286
01:08:54,296 --> 01:08:56,507
So they're taking a look
at all my payments.

1287
01:08:56,590 --> 01:08:59,885
They asked about the large sums
of money that came in from you guys.

1288
01:08:59,969 --> 01:09:00,803
[Elizabeth] Okay.

1289
01:09:00,886 --> 01:09:03,389
-[Singer] Essentially--
-For all the good deeds that you do.

1290
01:09:03,472 --> 01:09:06,767
[Singer] Absolutely. Of course
I didn't say anything, you know?

1291
01:09:06,851 --> 01:09:11,689
I'm not gonna tell the IRS that Mark took
the test for Isabelle, or that Gordie--

1292
01:09:11,772 --> 01:09:13,107
[Elizabeth] Mm-hmm, right. Yeah.

1293
01:09:13,190 --> 01:09:17,319
[Singer] Or that Gordie… Uh, we paid
Gordieto help get into Georgetown, right?

1294
01:09:17,403 --> 01:09:18,320
Right.

1295
01:09:18,404 --> 01:09:22,241
[Singer] So I just wanna make sure
that you and I are on the same page.

1296
01:09:22,324 --> 01:09:24,285
-Okay.
-[Singer] In case they were to call.

1297
01:09:24,368 --> 01:09:25,786
So what's your story?

1298
01:09:25,870 --> 01:09:30,040
So my story is essentially that
you gave your money to our foundation

1299
01:09:30,124 --> 01:09:31,876
to help underserved kids.

1300
01:09:31,959 --> 01:09:34,545
-[Elizabeth] You… Uh… Of course.
-[Singer] And, uh…

1301
01:09:34,628 --> 01:09:36,422
[Elizabeth] Those kids
have to go to school.

1302
01:09:36,505 --> 01:09:37,590
Absolutely.

1303
01:09:45,931 --> 01:09:46,765
Okay.

1304
01:09:46,849 --> 01:09:49,852
[Paperny] I'm not surprised
at Singer's level of involvement.

1305
01:09:49,935 --> 01:09:53,022
Much like he seized
an opportunity to enrich himself

1306
01:09:53,105 --> 01:09:55,065
to help get their children into school,

1307
01:09:55,149 --> 01:09:58,652
he equally seized another opportunity
to earn cooperation credit.

1308
01:09:58,736 --> 01:10:01,155
He was just as zealous
in cooperating

1309
01:10:01,238 --> 01:10:04,366
as he was in getting parents
to pay him to get their kids into school.

1310
01:10:15,294 --> 01:10:19,256
-So there's no paper trail of money?
-No, there's no paper trail of money.

1311
01:10:19,340 --> 01:10:20,716
Right.

1312
01:10:20,799 --> 01:10:22,885
So why did Isabelle
do the test in Houston?

1313
01:10:22,968 --> 01:10:24,678
We gotta get into that story.

1314
01:10:26,013 --> 01:10:27,765
So let me go into it. Uh…

1315
01:10:29,892 --> 01:10:32,895
Essentially, there's nowhere
where anybody knows,

1316
01:10:32,978 --> 01:10:36,815
because, in my books, it doesn't show
that there was any money paid to Mark

1317
01:10:36,899 --> 01:10:39,735
for taking the test for Isabelle. Okay?

1318
01:10:39,818 --> 01:10:43,322
It doesn't show anything at all
in our foundation or anything.

1319
01:10:43,405 --> 01:10:44,448
Just so you know.

1320
01:10:45,824 --> 01:10:46,825
Right.

1321
01:10:46,909 --> 01:10:50,621
So the question is, uh,
if anybody calls me, the response is,

1322
01:10:50,704 --> 01:10:52,665
"No comment on the Houston issue."

1323
01:10:52,748 --> 01:10:55,000
Remember, she went there
because she needed special--

1324
01:10:55,084 --> 01:10:57,294
-I understand.
-Accommodations.

1325
01:10:58,128 --> 01:10:59,463
Accommodations.

1326
01:10:59,546 --> 01:11:01,090
But I'm not gonna comment.

1327
01:11:01,757 --> 01:11:04,218
We gotta be very careful
getting inbound calls.

1328
01:11:04,885 --> 01:11:06,178
"I've no idea who you are,

1329
01:11:06,262 --> 01:11:08,847
so I won't respond
to an inbound call from anybody."

1330
01:11:36,500 --> 01:11:39,545
[Vandemoer] Rick said,
"I wanna continue our relationship."

1331
01:11:39,628 --> 01:11:42,840
"I wanna call you in a week,
and talk about another donation

1332
01:11:42,923 --> 01:11:46,343
like I did with the $110,000.
I'd like to continue to do that."

1333
01:11:46,427 --> 01:11:48,887
I said, "Great."
So he was true to his word.

1334
01:11:48,971 --> 01:11:51,557
He called me a week to two weeks later.

1335
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:53,392
I was rushing out the door,

1336
01:11:53,475 --> 01:11:56,145
but he's talking to me
the whole time on this call.

1337
01:11:56,228 --> 01:11:57,980
I'm just "yeah-ing" him to death.

1338
01:11:58,063 --> 01:12:02,401
He said he wants to donate $160,000
right now, and he'd give the rest later,

1339
01:12:02,484 --> 01:12:04,903
to continue a deposit on our relationship.

1340
01:12:04,987 --> 01:12:08,157
The only word
I really picked up was "deposit."

1341
01:12:08,741 --> 01:12:10,909
I took it as his deposit on a relationship

1342
01:12:10,993 --> 01:12:14,079
was that he would
bring me more recruits to consider.

1343
01:12:14,163 --> 01:12:16,457
And we'd see how it would go from there.

1344
01:12:16,540 --> 01:12:20,210
Then I didn't hear anything from
Rick again and still haven't, actually.

1345
01:12:20,294 --> 01:12:22,421
That was the last conversation we had.

1346
01:12:23,088 --> 01:12:25,424
That phone call was set up by the FBI.

1347
01:12:25,507 --> 01:12:28,010
It turns out that was the most, uh…

1348
01:12:28,093 --> 01:12:30,929
tragic and most devastating
phone call of my life.

1349
01:12:31,013 --> 01:12:33,432
[Singer] I wanna make sure
we're confirmed that,

1350
01:12:33,515 --> 01:12:37,102
going forward, I'm going to at least
potentially have a spot with you.

1351
01:12:37,186 --> 01:12:41,148
It'll probably be an athlete like the
other student who wasn't an actual sailor.

1352
01:12:41,231 --> 01:12:42,107
[Vandemoer] Okay.

1353
01:12:42,191 --> 01:12:44,109
I'll put together a profile for her,

1354
01:12:44,193 --> 01:12:48,572
and, uh… put all the major regattas
that I come up with from the Internet,

1355
01:12:48,655 --> 01:12:50,157
and bring someone to you.

1356
01:12:50,240 --> 01:12:53,035
-Then we'll make a payment to you again.
-[Vandemoer] Great.

1357
01:12:53,535 --> 01:12:55,496
[man] As someone who's defending somebody,

1358
01:12:55,579 --> 01:12:58,248
how did you feel hearing that tape?

1359
01:13:00,417 --> 01:13:01,919
Um… [chuckles]

1360
01:13:02,878 --> 01:13:05,589
It wasn't good, um, from my point of view.

1361
01:13:05,672 --> 01:13:06,548
Um…

1362
01:13:07,132 --> 01:13:09,968
And it would have been tough at trial.
Tapes are…

1363
01:13:10,052 --> 01:13:12,888
When I was a prosecutor,
I did a lot of wiretaps.

1364
01:13:12,971 --> 01:13:15,808
And I played
a lot of wiretap calls or tapes.

1365
01:13:15,891 --> 01:13:18,685
And juries love hearing wiretap calls.

1366
01:13:19,269 --> 01:13:21,688
They can be good evidence.
I explained that to him.

1367
01:13:21,772 --> 01:13:24,525
I heard the call.
I thought this was a good one,

1368
01:13:24,608 --> 01:13:26,860
and it could be tough to explain.

1369
01:13:27,444 --> 01:13:31,281
[Singer] So I wanted to let you know,
our foundation is… is being audited.

1370
01:13:31,365 --> 01:13:32,282
Yeah.

1371
01:13:32,366 --> 01:13:34,952
-[Singer] Which is very normal, right?
-Yeah.

1372
01:13:35,035 --> 01:13:36,912
[Singer] They've been
auditing my foundation.

1373
01:13:36,995 --> 01:13:37,830
Okay.

1374
01:13:37,913 --> 01:13:40,249
-[Singer] Which is pretty typical.
-Uh-huh.

1375
01:13:40,332 --> 01:13:43,168
-[Singer] My foundation is being audited.
-Uh-huh.

1376
01:13:43,252 --> 01:13:45,379
Like everybody
on the planet, huh? [chuckles]

1377
01:13:45,462 --> 01:13:46,338
[man] Sure.

1378
01:13:46,422 --> 01:13:48,173
So they've been looking at…

1379
01:13:48,257 --> 01:13:51,093
[Fisher] This wasn't
a typical sting operation.

1380
01:13:51,176 --> 01:13:53,679
If you look back
at the larger, white-collar cases,

1381
01:13:53,762 --> 01:13:56,515
Enron, for example,
the leadership is indicted.

1382
01:13:56,598 --> 01:14:01,812
Maybe the CEO, the CFO, uh, the COO,
and then, really, the indictments end.

1383
01:14:01,895 --> 01:14:06,859
Traditionally, a large RICO indictment
like this is gonna be organized crime.

1384
01:14:06,942 --> 01:14:09,486
If you're going after
a syndicate that deals drugs,

1385
01:14:09,570 --> 01:14:12,072
you start with local level dealers,
flip one of them,

1386
01:14:12,156 --> 01:14:14,783
get a wire, work your way
up to the middle-level dealer,

1387
01:14:14,867 --> 01:14:16,743
and you end up with the kingpin.

1388
01:14:16,827 --> 01:14:21,081
Here, Rick Singer was selling the product,
and yet you had him first.

1389
01:14:21,165 --> 01:14:25,127
Then you worked your way down the chain
to get the buyers of the product.

1390
01:14:25,210 --> 01:14:27,671
[Singer] They started
an audit on my foundation.

1391
01:14:27,754 --> 01:14:28,589
Yeah.

1392
01:14:28,672 --> 01:14:30,757
-[Singer] Which is typical, right?
-Okay.

1393
01:14:30,841 --> 01:14:32,968
-[Singer] Which is pretty natural.
-Yeah.

1394
01:14:33,051 --> 01:14:34,344
[Singer] I'm gonna tell the IRS

1395
01:14:34,428 --> 01:14:37,264
that your donation
to our foundation essentially went--

1396
01:14:37,347 --> 01:14:39,641
Wait, wait, Rick.
Let me ask you a question.

1397
01:14:39,725 --> 01:14:43,145
Shouldn't we get together over this
as opposed to over the phone?

1398
01:14:43,228 --> 01:14:44,938
[Singer] Whatever you wanna do. I'm fine.

1399
01:14:45,022 --> 01:14:49,318
All I'm gonna tell the IRS
is that your donation to our foundation

1400
01:14:49,401 --> 01:14:52,070
went to help underserved kids. That's it.

1401
01:14:52,154 --> 01:14:53,489
[Sloane] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

1402
01:14:53,572 --> 01:14:55,782
[Paperny] In listening
to some of the tapes of Singer,

1403
01:14:55,866 --> 01:14:58,118
he's as skilled as I've ever heard

1404
01:14:58,202 --> 01:15:01,872
of getting someone
to acknowledge wrongdoing.

1405
01:15:01,955 --> 01:15:03,874
Yeah, he was pretty good on the phone,

1406
01:15:03,957 --> 01:15:07,336
but that's only gonna work
with these white-collar professionals.

1407
01:15:07,419 --> 01:15:12,299
Historically, white-collar defendants
have almost no filter on the phone.

1408
01:15:12,382 --> 01:15:16,178
We know people at Goldman Sachs
who, you know, recommended you highly.

1409
01:15:16,261 --> 01:15:19,848
My husband and I laugh every day
about how great your work was.

1410
01:15:19,932 --> 01:15:22,184
We're like, "It was worth every cent."

1411
01:15:22,267 --> 01:15:25,312
If he was talking
to organized crime members,

1412
01:15:25,395 --> 01:15:29,566
he would have been made as a cooperator
within 30 seconds on the call.

1413
01:15:29,650 --> 01:15:34,071
So, what I want is to make sure
that you and I are both on the same page.

1414
01:15:34,655 --> 01:15:36,156
Because I'm going to tell them

1415
01:15:36,240 --> 01:15:41,370
that you made a $50K donation
to my foundation to help underserved kids.

1416
01:15:41,453 --> 01:15:43,914
Not that Mark
took the test for your daughter

1417
01:15:43,997 --> 01:15:46,708
or that she took the test
at the West Hollywood test center.

1418
01:15:46,792 --> 01:15:48,377
What do you think, I'm a moron?

1419
01:15:48,460 --> 01:15:51,880
No, I… I'm not saying you're a moron.
The point is that--

1420
01:15:51,964 --> 01:15:53,632
[Huneeus] I got it, Rick. I got it.

1421
01:15:53,715 --> 01:15:55,175
I'll say I've been inspired,

1422
01:15:55,259 --> 01:15:58,679
how you're helping underprivileged
kids get into college. Got it.

1423
01:15:58,762 --> 01:16:00,305
Hey, Rick. I…

1424
01:16:00,389 --> 01:16:01,932
You know, I don't…

1425
01:16:02,015 --> 01:16:04,768
You know, whatever you do,
you do, you know?

1426
01:16:04,851 --> 01:16:07,688
I really don't feel comfortable
talking to you about this

1427
01:16:07,771 --> 01:16:09,940
in terms of kind of, you know, your…

1428
01:16:10,023 --> 01:16:10,857
In terms of…

1429
01:16:10,941 --> 01:16:13,402
In terms of kind of your…
You know, your dealings.

1430
01:16:13,986 --> 01:16:17,114
[reporter] Stephen Semprevivo,
a Los Angeles businessman,

1431
01:16:17,197 --> 01:16:23,412
paying $400,000 to get his son
into Georgetown as a fake tennis recruit.

1432
01:16:23,495 --> 01:16:26,707
You know, all I know is that
we used you for the charity stuff

1433
01:16:26,790 --> 01:16:28,542
and we used you for the counseling,

1434
01:16:28,625 --> 01:16:31,128
and your dealings are your dealings.
And so, you know…

1435
01:16:31,211 --> 01:16:33,088
[Singer] No, I get that.
I understand that.

1436
01:16:33,171 --> 01:16:35,173
But at the same time, we were all a part--

1437
01:16:35,257 --> 01:16:37,342
No, I don't agree with that at all.

1438
01:16:37,426 --> 01:16:39,761
You don't agree
that we got him in through tennis?

1439
01:16:39,845 --> 01:16:41,680
[Semprevivo] I don't. I don't. I…

1440
01:16:41,763 --> 01:16:44,891
You know, you did what you did,
and that was your stuff, okay?

1441
01:16:44,975 --> 01:16:46,768
-Okay.
-You did what you did.

1442
01:16:46,852 --> 01:16:50,439
I won't take accountability for it.
You need to be accountable for--

1443
01:16:50,522 --> 01:16:52,899
[Singer] Absolutely.
I'm absolutely accountable,

1444
01:16:52,983 --> 01:16:55,902
that I got him in through tennis,
and that you guys were aware of it.

1445
01:16:55,986 --> 01:16:59,281
I'm totally aware of it
and I accept total responsibility

1446
01:16:59,364 --> 01:17:02,659
that I used my relationship
and made your son a tennis player.

1447
01:17:02,743 --> 01:17:05,537
We all agreed
that that's what we were going to do.

1448
01:17:05,621 --> 01:17:07,289
You know, I don't have any details,

1449
01:17:07,372 --> 01:17:10,208
but I think you need
to be accountable for what you did.

1450
01:17:10,292 --> 01:17:13,295
So I don't wanna talk
about this anymore because, you know…

1451
01:17:13,378 --> 01:17:15,672
I think there were two separate things.

1452
01:17:15,756 --> 01:17:18,634
And we used you, and we donated.

1453
01:17:18,717 --> 01:17:21,219
We donated as a charity,
and it was a good charity.

1454
01:17:21,303 --> 01:17:22,804
We were excited we could help.

1455
01:17:22,888 --> 01:17:25,641
In terms of
how you do favors for people separately,

1456
01:17:25,724 --> 01:17:28,060
that's, you know, I…

1457
01:17:28,852 --> 01:17:31,605
We appreciate any help you gave us.

1458
01:17:31,688 --> 01:17:34,483
But, you know,
we used you in terms of the…

1459
01:17:34,566 --> 01:17:36,777
In terms of your college stuff.

1460
01:17:36,860 --> 01:17:39,571
We paid you well
for the work you did there separately.

1461
01:17:39,655 --> 01:17:42,032
So… And we appreciate it.

1462
01:17:42,115 --> 01:17:43,450
So I think that…

1463
01:17:44,284 --> 01:17:46,078
If you're trying to turn something around

1464
01:17:46,161 --> 01:17:48,330
in terms of what you did
and how you did it,

1465
01:17:48,413 --> 01:17:49,539
then I don't wanna be…

1466
01:17:49,623 --> 01:17:51,249
I don't wanna be a part of that.

1467
01:17:51,958 --> 01:17:55,754
You know, I'm so paranoid about
this fucking thing you were talking about,

1468
01:17:55,837 --> 01:17:58,215
I don't like talking about it
on the phone.

1469
01:17:59,091 --> 01:18:02,678
I mean, I'm thinking, you know, are they…

1470
01:18:02,761 --> 01:18:05,722
I can't imagine they'd go
to the trouble of tapping my phone,

1471
01:18:05,806 --> 01:18:08,141
but would they tap
someone like your phones?

1472
01:18:08,225 --> 01:18:11,436
[reporter] Real estate tycoon
Bruce Isackson and his wife Davina

1473
01:18:11,520 --> 01:18:14,189
paying $600,000 to help
their two daughters

1474
01:18:14,272 --> 01:18:16,149
get into UCLA and USC

1475
01:18:16,233 --> 01:18:20,112
through the test cheating scheme
and the athletic recruitment scheme.

1476
01:18:20,612 --> 01:18:23,573
Worst case, we'd get a call
from them and they'd say to you,

1477
01:18:23,657 --> 01:18:25,450
"Prove you gave this money…"

1478
01:18:25,534 --> 01:18:27,619
-They'd ask for some.
-But you did.

1479
01:18:27,703 --> 01:18:28,954
[breathing heavily] Yeah.

1480
01:18:29,579 --> 01:18:31,998
But… I'm just thinking that…

1481
01:18:32,082 --> 01:18:34,626
Oh, my God. [sputtering]
Because you're thinking…

1482
01:18:34,710 --> 01:18:40,048
If they get into the meat and potatoes,
is this gonna be a front-page story?

1483
01:18:40,132 --> 01:18:42,050
Well, the person
who'd be on the front page--

1484
01:18:42,134 --> 01:18:44,094
[Isackson] Yeah, but will I… But… But if…

1485
01:18:44,177 --> 01:18:48,098
If they got into the meat and potatoes,
which a guy would love to have is…

1486
01:18:48,181 --> 01:18:51,101
Look how hard it is
for these kids to get into college and…

1487
01:18:51,184 --> 01:18:53,145
Look what's going on behind the scenes.

1488
01:18:53,228 --> 01:18:57,149
And then… you know, the embarrassment
to everyone in the communities.

1489
01:18:57,232 --> 01:18:58,108
My God.

1490
01:18:59,234 --> 01:19:00,318
It'd just be, uh…

1491
01:19:02,362 --> 01:19:03,697
God, just…

1492
01:19:04,573 --> 01:19:05,741
Oh…

1493
01:19:17,836 --> 01:19:21,965
[Vandemoer] Fast forward a couple months,
we go through the Christmas season,

1494
01:19:22,048 --> 01:19:25,343
we get a knock on the door
at 7:00, 7:30 in the morning

1495
01:19:25,427 --> 01:19:27,804
and it's two women.

1496
01:19:27,888 --> 01:19:30,015
They kinda hold up badges and say,

1497
01:19:30,098 --> 01:19:33,059
"I'm from the IRS,"
and "I'm from the FBI."

1498
01:19:33,143 --> 01:19:35,896
I said, "What's this about?
What can I help you with?"

1499
01:19:35,979 --> 01:19:40,192
"Oh, we just have a few questions
in terms of college admissions and so on."

1500
01:19:40,275 --> 01:19:42,194
I said, "Whatever I can do to help."

1501
01:19:42,277 --> 01:19:45,238
The FBI agent started
asking questions about Rick Singer.

1502
01:19:45,322 --> 01:19:48,325
I described our relationship,
that he brought me recruits,

1503
01:19:48,408 --> 01:19:50,327
he was donating, and they said,

1504
01:19:50,410 --> 01:19:53,663
"No, that's not what it was.
It was you taking bribes."

1505
01:19:53,747 --> 01:19:55,957
They kinda wrapped up with saying that,

1506
01:19:56,041 --> 01:19:58,710
"Stanford knows about this.
They're really angry with you."

1507
01:19:59,294 --> 01:20:01,963
They gave me their cards
and they said goodbye.

1508
01:20:03,006 --> 01:20:06,885
I promptly went upstairs,
sat down on my bed and cried.

1509
01:20:06,968 --> 01:20:08,929
I didn't know what happened.

1510
01:20:09,012 --> 01:20:12,349
John Vandemoer reached out to me.
He was in need of an attorney.

1511
01:20:12,432 --> 01:20:14,184
There was such a sense of urgency.

1512
01:20:14,267 --> 01:20:16,186
"You have to meet him before next week.

1513
01:20:16,269 --> 01:20:20,190
We have to know if he's gonna take
a plea deal or not within 48 hours."

1514
01:20:20,273 --> 01:20:21,942
He flew in the red-eye.

1515
01:20:22,818 --> 01:20:26,196
I'd never met him before,
but he just looked… He was tired,

1516
01:20:26,279 --> 01:20:30,075
and obviously extremely upset
at what was about to happen.

1517
01:20:30,158 --> 01:20:34,955
And he says, "So it's not good.
You're being charged with mail fraud,

1518
01:20:35,038 --> 01:20:36,748
tax fraud and wire fraud."

1519
01:20:36,832 --> 01:20:39,835
"Each of those counts carry
a 20-year sentence in prison."

1520
01:20:39,918 --> 01:20:42,838
The allegation is that he joined
Rick Singer's conspiracy,

1521
01:20:42,921 --> 01:20:46,550
the object of which was to help
these students, who were not sailors,

1522
01:20:46,633 --> 01:20:50,554
get recruited for his team so they would
gain access or admission to Stanford.

1523
01:20:50,637 --> 01:20:51,721
In exchange for that,

1524
01:20:51,805 --> 01:20:54,975
Rick would wire him money or mail a check,
or hand him a check.

1525
01:20:55,058 --> 01:20:57,477
That triggers
the wire fraud and the mail fraud.

1526
01:20:57,561 --> 01:21:00,897
[Vandemoer] They already had Stanford
willing to testify against me.

1527
01:21:00,981 --> 01:21:03,358
Rick Singer was gonna testify against me.

1528
01:21:03,441 --> 01:21:06,111
I didn't really
have any evidence on my side.

1529
01:21:06,194 --> 01:21:08,780
Between my wife and my dad and I,

1530
01:21:08,864 --> 01:21:12,367
we kinda decided that it made
sense for me to plead guilty,

1531
01:21:12,450 --> 01:21:14,661
um, and be a felon
for the rest of my life.

1532
01:21:17,038 --> 01:21:20,625
[Fisher] When you plead guilty, you must
meet with the Department of Probation.

1533
01:21:20,709 --> 01:21:22,043
He was being interviewed.

1534
01:21:22,127 --> 01:21:26,256
[Vandemoer] At the time when I was in that
interview, that's when the story broke.

1535
01:21:26,339 --> 01:21:30,552
We're here today to announce charges
in the largest college admissions scam

1536
01:21:30,635 --> 01:21:33,054
ever prosecuted
by the Department of Justice.

1537
01:21:33,555 --> 01:21:36,141
We've charged 50 people nationwide.

1538
01:21:36,224 --> 01:21:40,145
[Witz] I was in Las Vegas covering
some conference basketball tournament

1539
01:21:40,228 --> 01:21:44,733
when I got a phone call early
in the morning from an editor saying,

1540
01:21:44,816 --> 01:21:49,529
"What are you doing? Whatever it is,
drop it and get to Los Angeles."

1541
01:21:49,613 --> 01:21:52,908
Breaking headline of that massive
college cheating scandal late today.

1542
01:21:52,991 --> 01:21:56,703
Dozens of actors, coaches
and CEOs are among those charged.

1543
01:21:57,954 --> 01:22:00,624
[Fisher] And my phone started blowing up.

1544
01:22:00,707 --> 01:22:03,084
[Vandemoer] My lawyer was looking
at his phone the whole time,

1545
01:22:03,168 --> 01:22:05,712
and it was like, you know, "This is huge."

1546
01:22:05,795 --> 01:22:09,007
Thirty-three parents have been charged,
including Lori Loughlin…

1547
01:22:09,090 --> 01:22:10,884
[reporter] Authorities arrest
Felicity Huffman

1548
01:22:10,967 --> 01:22:12,427
at her Hollywood Hills home.

1549
01:22:12,510 --> 01:22:14,471
They had guns drawn and everything.

1550
01:22:14,554 --> 01:22:16,264
[reporter 2] Raids on
the homes of the rich.

1551
01:22:16,348 --> 01:22:17,390
[officer] FBI!

1552
01:22:17,474 --> 01:22:20,018
Every single one
of these parents should be in jail.

1553
01:22:20,101 --> 01:22:22,479
How the schools fell for these photoshops…

1554
01:22:22,562 --> 01:22:24,773
Use your heads, people. That's not…

1555
01:22:24,856 --> 01:22:28,860
Olivia Giannulli was famous
for her presence on social media.

1556
01:22:28,944 --> 01:22:32,113
Now she's become
target number one for public outrage.

1557
01:22:32,197 --> 01:22:34,532
[reporter 3] Her famous parents
are charged with spending

1558
01:22:34,616 --> 01:22:38,244
half a million dollars in bribes
to get their daughters into USC.

1559
01:22:38,328 --> 01:22:40,538
I started watching Olivia three years ago.

1560
01:22:40,622 --> 01:22:43,708
I've been watching pretty much
every single one of her videos.

1561
01:22:43,792 --> 01:22:47,754
She goes and cheats to get into school?

1562
01:22:47,837 --> 01:22:51,800
And takes a spot
from possibly one of her own fans?

1563
01:22:51,883 --> 01:22:53,718
She lost a lot of her sponsorships.

1564
01:22:53,802 --> 01:22:57,555
They discontinued a makeup palette
that she did with Sephora.

1565
01:22:58,556 --> 01:23:00,183
[cameraman] Hey, Olivia. How are you?

1566
01:23:00,266 --> 01:23:04,688
How are you after the college scandal?
Have you been speaking to your mom?

1567
01:23:04,771 --> 01:23:10,276
[Fry] In a weird way, she has almost
become a bigger celebrity because of this.

1568
01:23:10,360 --> 01:23:13,655
[cameraman] Olivia, it's good to see you
back out and about.

1569
01:23:13,738 --> 01:23:14,864
Feeling confident?

1570
01:23:14,948 --> 01:23:20,370
People attacked her on Instagram
and her comments were flooded with stuff.

1571
01:23:20,453 --> 01:23:23,456
[girl] She can look at
people's comments on the Internet

1572
01:23:23,540 --> 01:23:25,583
and be, "They're just trolls." No.

1573
01:23:25,667 --> 01:23:28,712
I'm not trolling you, dude.
I'm pissed.

1574
01:23:28,795 --> 01:23:30,338
I'm disappointed in you.

1575
01:23:30,922 --> 01:23:35,844
And, um… the only thing
I have left to say about this…

1576
01:23:38,138 --> 01:23:39,347
[reporters clamoring]

1577
01:23:41,391 --> 01:23:45,812
[reporter] John Vandemoer agreed to accept
more than $600,000 from Rick Singer,

1578
01:23:45,895 --> 01:23:49,024
the alleged mastermind
of the college admissions scandal.

1579
01:23:49,107 --> 01:23:52,569
A neighbor texted me and said,
"Are you reading those articles?"

1580
01:23:52,652 --> 01:23:54,070
"Do you see who it is?"

1581
01:23:54,154 --> 01:23:57,407
And it was,
"Oh, my gosh, it's Rick Singer."

1582
01:23:57,490 --> 01:23:59,159
I started jumping up and down.

1583
01:23:59,242 --> 01:24:00,910
I said, "I can't believe it."

1584
01:24:00,994 --> 01:24:04,497
"I can't believe they caught the guy.
I cannot believe it."

1585
01:24:04,581 --> 01:24:07,625
The messages I was getting
on my phone, the news alerts,

1586
01:24:07,709 --> 01:24:09,753
it really was, I thought,

1587
01:24:09,836 --> 01:24:12,922
an overwhelming
reaction to a criminal case.

1588
01:24:13,006 --> 01:24:15,341
[Vandemoer] Walked outside,
which wasn't a good idea.

1589
01:24:15,425 --> 01:24:18,762
There was cameras in my face,
questions being blurted out.

1590
01:24:18,845 --> 01:24:21,973
-[reporter] What made you plead guilty?
-[Vandemoer] It was overwhelming.

1591
01:24:22,057 --> 01:24:23,016
It was a mob scene.

1592
01:24:23,099 --> 01:24:26,227
[Vandemoer] You're not allowed
to have your cell phone in the courthouse.

1593
01:24:26,311 --> 01:24:30,065
I checked my phone, and I have an email
from Stanford telling me I'm fired.

1594
01:24:30,148 --> 01:24:33,234
I didn't have a paycheck anymore,
or health insurance.

1595
01:24:33,318 --> 01:24:36,529
Most importantly, my kids' daycare,

1596
01:24:36,613 --> 01:24:39,699
the roof over our head,
was on the Stanford campus.

1597
01:24:39,783 --> 01:24:41,868
The same school that was my victim.

1598
01:24:41,951 --> 01:24:45,121
[man] Any message to your former athletes?
They looked up to you.

1599
01:24:45,205 --> 01:24:48,541
[Vandemoer] I also made the mistake
leaving my social media on,

1600
01:24:48,625 --> 01:24:50,794
and it's just… hate.

1601
01:24:50,877 --> 01:24:53,046
I got a couple death threats on the phone.

1602
01:24:53,129 --> 01:24:55,131
Anonymous folks sending messages

1603
01:24:55,215 --> 01:24:58,384
that they were upset
at what they thought he did.

1604
01:24:58,468 --> 01:25:02,138
I was the "worst fat fuck"
that they've ever seen in their life.

1605
01:25:02,222 --> 01:25:04,265
"How did I ever fit
in a frickin' sailboat?

1606
01:25:04,349 --> 01:25:06,184
How could I do this to Stanford?

1607
01:25:06,267 --> 01:25:08,394
I should just fucking die and go away."

1608
01:25:08,478 --> 01:25:11,773
The week that it broke,
we got a call from a Chinese guy

1609
01:25:11,856 --> 01:25:14,859
who wanted to pay
$10 million to get into Harvard.

1610
01:25:14,943 --> 01:25:17,946
[chuckling] I was like,
"Man, have you read the news?" Like…

1611
01:25:18,029 --> 01:25:20,198
This is the worst week to make this call.

1612
01:25:20,281 --> 01:25:25,578
When the story broke,
I was getting ready to go into a meeting,

1613
01:25:25,662 --> 01:25:28,289
and I got a call
from a friend of mine, and he says,

1614
01:25:28,373 --> 01:25:34,170
"Hey, who's the guy you worked for
at the getting-into-college company?"

1615
01:25:34,254 --> 01:25:35,880
I said, "Rick Singer. Why?"

1616
01:25:35,964 --> 01:25:38,174
He says, "You gotta be kidding."
I said, "No, why?"

1617
01:25:39,008 --> 01:25:43,221
"Turn on the news. Go on Facebook.
Go on Instagram. Whatever."

1618
01:25:43,304 --> 01:25:46,558
[chuckling] "Just open up your phone
and look."

1619
01:25:47,851 --> 01:25:50,937
And I couldn't believe it.

1620
01:25:55,942 --> 01:25:59,028
There's a videotape
of Rick just walking solemnly

1621
01:25:59,112 --> 01:26:02,448
with all these reporters,
and not looking at anyone,

1622
01:26:02,532 --> 01:26:03,449
and my…

1623
01:26:04,159 --> 01:26:07,036
My heart just sank. It just sank.

1624
01:26:07,745 --> 01:26:09,956
[Vandemoer] Finally,
it was time for me to go in.

1625
01:26:10,039 --> 01:26:11,499
It's my time to be sentenced.

1626
01:26:12,292 --> 01:26:13,710
Rick was still in there.

1627
01:26:13,793 --> 01:26:17,463
We literally
have to cross each other right away.

1628
01:26:17,547 --> 01:26:21,176
Rick, of course, doesn't look
me in the eye or anything else.

1629
01:26:21,259 --> 01:26:22,093
It just, uh…

1630
01:26:22,969 --> 01:26:26,514
I'll never forget that moment
when we walked by each other like that.

1631
01:26:28,850 --> 01:26:30,185
My heart was pounding.

1632
01:26:30,268 --> 01:26:34,105
Um, sitting between my two lawyers
and the judge comes up

1633
01:26:34,189 --> 01:26:37,483
and "conspiracy racketeering"
is what I end up pleading guilty to.

1634
01:26:37,650 --> 01:26:40,403
[Fisher] Judge Zobel
understood that this was a guy

1635
01:26:40,486 --> 01:26:42,780
who really cared deeply about his students

1636
01:26:42,864 --> 01:26:45,116
and there was no need to send him to jail.

1637
01:26:45,783 --> 01:26:48,536
[Zobel] Mr. Vandemoer
is probably the least culpable

1638
01:26:48,620 --> 01:26:51,122
of all of the defendants
in this group of cases.

1639
01:26:51,206 --> 01:26:54,334
Certainly the parents
are in a different position.

1640
01:26:54,417 --> 01:26:57,212
The other coaches
benefitted for themselves.

1641
01:26:57,295 --> 01:26:59,047
He did not do that.

1642
01:26:59,130 --> 01:27:03,176
[Vandemoer] She gave me six months of home
confinement, two years of probation.

1643
01:27:03,259 --> 01:27:05,303
And I got a $10,000 fine.

1644
01:27:05,386 --> 01:27:08,348
I think, for John,
that was truly the right decision.

1645
01:27:08,932 --> 01:27:10,642
And he didn't have to serve time.

1646
01:27:10,725 --> 01:27:13,561
He's home with his kids.
He's bettering himself.

1647
01:27:13,645 --> 01:27:15,772
He's going back to school. He has a job.

1648
01:27:15,855 --> 01:27:19,609
He seems, when I talk to him,
that he's in a much, much better place.

1649
01:27:19,692 --> 01:27:22,278
I believe,
in Stanford's victim impact letter,

1650
01:27:22,362 --> 01:27:27,617
they said they're still in possession
of over $700,000 in donations.

1651
01:27:27,700 --> 01:27:30,411
Neither me or any associates
working for me at the firm

1652
01:27:30,495 --> 01:27:34,540
could find any case where
the victim of a racketeering conspiracy,

1653
01:27:34,624 --> 01:27:38,127
at the end of the conspiracy
ended up $770,000 richer

1654
01:27:38,211 --> 01:27:40,672
than they were
at the beginning of the conspiracy.

1655
01:27:45,760 --> 01:27:48,179
[Amott] Rick Singer is back in Sacramento.

1656
01:27:48,263 --> 01:27:51,224
He drives around town.
He's still in his athletic clothes.

1657
01:27:51,307 --> 01:27:52,934
He doesn't look any flashier.

1658
01:27:53,017 --> 01:27:56,312
He swims twice a day
at a local tennis club.

1659
01:27:56,396 --> 01:27:58,606
And he gets out of the pool in a Speedo,

1660
01:27:58,690 --> 01:28:00,900
does yoga, push-ups,
and he's on the phone.

1661
01:28:00,984 --> 01:28:02,735
Sometimes he has multiple phones.

1662
01:28:02,819 --> 01:28:06,572
My understanding, he's telling people
that he's not gonna go to jail

1663
01:28:06,656 --> 01:28:08,950
because they know the judge, etcetera.

1664
01:28:09,033 --> 01:28:12,078
Again, knowing Rick Singer,
you don't know what to believe.

1665
01:28:12,161 --> 01:28:15,581
You don't know if he believes it
or if it's an outright lie.

1666
01:28:15,665 --> 01:28:18,209
Um, you know,
he's plead guilty to four felonies.

1667
01:28:18,293 --> 01:28:21,587
I just have to believe
he's going to go to jail.

1668
01:28:22,547 --> 01:28:26,217
[man] Is the system broken?
Any comment on anything?

1669
01:28:27,677 --> 01:28:31,264
[Fry] There's a video
in which you see a guy with a mic

1670
01:28:31,347 --> 01:28:36,185
trying to get Rick Singer to answer
questions, and he just stonewalls them.

1671
01:28:38,021 --> 01:28:40,106
Can any good come out of this, Rick?

1672
01:28:40,606 --> 01:28:45,403
[Fry] He seems unperturbed
by these people trying to interview him.

1673
01:28:45,486 --> 01:28:49,324
It makes you wonder
about the levels of his regret.

1674
01:28:49,407 --> 01:28:54,162
He's a bit of a cipher
in his attitude about this whole affair.

1675
01:28:55,830 --> 01:28:58,499
You seem comfortable.
You're taking your time here.

1676
01:29:01,002 --> 01:29:03,755
Did you really work
with over 700 families?

1677
01:29:05,840 --> 01:29:07,508
Rick, is the system broken?

1678
01:29:12,847 --> 01:29:14,974
[reporter 1] Actress Lori Loughlin
of Full House

1679
01:29:15,058 --> 01:29:16,642
was sentenced to two months in prison.

1680
01:29:16,726 --> 01:29:18,686
[reporter 2] Her husband,
Mossimo Giannulli,

1681
01:29:18,770 --> 01:29:20,271
was sentenced to five months.

1682
01:29:20,355 --> 01:29:24,317
[reporter 3] Actress Felicity Huffman
received 14 days behind bars.

1683
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:28,029
[Kalmus] No good will have come out
of these sentences or out of this scandal.

1684
01:29:28,112 --> 01:29:31,449
The fines they've been given, meaningless.

1685
01:29:31,532 --> 01:29:33,868
In terms of hitting them
in their pocketbook,

1686
01:29:33,951 --> 01:29:37,205
what a difference
it could have made if we hit them hard

1687
01:29:37,288 --> 01:29:40,666
and put that money
to work for underprivileged kids.

1688
01:29:41,167 --> 01:29:42,835
That would have been amazing.

1689
01:29:42,919 --> 01:29:45,922
Then you can say
at least some good came of it.

1690
01:29:46,005 --> 01:29:50,676
I try not to blame
the families or the parents.

1691
01:29:50,760 --> 01:29:54,389
I tend to focus
the criticism on the colleges

1692
01:29:54,472 --> 01:29:57,266
and universities that created this system.

1693
01:29:57,350 --> 01:29:59,310
If they didn't have these loopholes

1694
01:29:59,394 --> 01:30:02,271
and these preferences
for families of privilege,

1695
01:30:02,355 --> 01:30:05,650
then I don't think there would be
these kind of temptations.

1696
01:30:05,733 --> 01:30:10,655
This scandal is not necessarily a reason
for colleges to change their ways.

1697
01:30:10,738 --> 01:30:15,535
Because it makes the colleges seem
more exclusive and desirable than ever.

1698
01:30:15,618 --> 01:30:19,664
If all these rich people are willing
to go to these incredible lengths

1699
01:30:19,747 --> 01:30:23,376
and risk jail time just
to get their kids into these colleges,

1700
01:30:23,459 --> 01:30:26,462
then they must be extremely valuable.

1701
01:30:26,546 --> 01:30:30,258
What are we doing to these kids
by pounding them into the ground

1702
01:30:30,341 --> 01:30:33,845
with "top 25, top 10, top 5"?

1703
01:30:33,928 --> 01:30:36,681
Because ultimately,
where you do go to school

1704
01:30:36,764 --> 01:30:40,810
has little or no effect
on what will happen to you in the future.

1705
01:30:40,893 --> 01:30:44,147
The United States has over 3,000 colleges.

1706
01:30:44,230 --> 01:30:46,065
You have infinite choices.

1707
01:30:46,149 --> 01:30:47,358
Forget about USC.

1708
01:30:48,317 --> 01:30:50,069
Go someplace else.

1709
01:30:50,153 --> 01:30:54,198
You can get a great education
almost any place if you want it.

1710
01:30:54,782 --> 01:30:57,785
The parents
in this case didn't believe that.

1711
01:30:57,869 --> 01:31:00,329
Because the bigger school
had the prestige,

1712
01:31:00,413 --> 01:31:03,833
had the glitter,
had the glamour, had the bragging rights.

1713
01:31:04,917 --> 01:31:09,046
Why did these parents choose to cheat this

1714
01:31:09,130 --> 01:31:11,340
when their children had so much already?

1715
01:31:11,424 --> 01:31:15,470
Part of it seems to be
when you reach a certain level of wealth,

1716
01:31:15,553 --> 01:31:18,389
there's a relentless pursuit
of the trappings of power.

1717
01:31:18,473 --> 01:31:20,016
You wanna have the fancy car,

1718
01:31:20,099 --> 01:31:22,059
the fancy house,
whether you need it or not,

1719
01:31:22,143 --> 01:31:23,561
and it just seems to me

1720
01:31:23,644 --> 01:31:27,523
that the atmosphere
created in high-wealth societies

1721
01:31:28,024 --> 01:31:29,400
is part of the problem.

1722
01:31:30,234 --> 01:31:34,614
In America, we love the wealthy
and we hate the wealthy.

1723
01:31:34,697 --> 01:31:37,408
They disgust us and they fascinate us.

1724
01:31:37,492 --> 01:31:42,788
This story was a perfect
opportunity to see how rich people live

1725
01:31:42,872 --> 01:31:46,083
and the realities
of the system being exposed,

1726
01:31:46,167 --> 01:31:48,586
and so there's something
incredibly refreshing

1727
01:31:48,669 --> 01:31:53,382
to have just a little bit of justice
being served in a sea of injustice.

1728
01:34:00,009 --> 01:34:02,845
[Fisher] Rick will be living with this
for quite a while.

1729
01:34:03,512 --> 01:34:06,682
If he didn't cooperate,
he would have been charged,

1730
01:34:06,766 --> 01:34:08,059
maybe convicted already.

1731
01:34:08,142 --> 01:34:11,103
And right now he's out, a free man still.

1732
01:34:11,187 --> 01:34:15,191
And his cooperation won't be complete
until the very last person

1733
01:34:15,274 --> 01:34:17,318
charged in this conspiracy is sentenced,

1734
01:34:17,401 --> 01:34:20,154
and that is most likely
gonna be a while from now.

1735
01:34:42,843 --> 01:34:44,845
[moody piano music playing]