Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the Operation Varsity Blues scandal, was sentenced to prison on Wednesday. His sentence is the final action needed to close the chapter on those who participated in the college admissions scandal and hold them accountable.

The scandal’s news coverage began in March 2019. It was a big story because all the elements of a soap opera were there – wealthy Hollywood celebs and successful business executives, along with doctors and lawyers, were paying big bucks to get their children into prestigious colleges. The kids weren’t qualified to be accepted on their own merits so mom and dad paid Rick Singer to get them in, often on bogus claims of athletic abilities. So not only did they cheat others out of academic acceptance, but they cheated students who had worked to achieve a position on a college sports team. Singer paid off college athletics officials to accept students into their programs, choosing low profile sports – like rowing, for example.

Singer’s scheme included “doctoring test scores, bribing coaches and embellishing or fabricating athletic credentials.”

William “Rick” Singer was sentenced to 31/2 years in prison. That is the longest sentence handed down to any of those involved in the scandal. Singer’s was a $25M criminal enterprise. Prosecutors originally asked for a 6 1/2 to 8 year sentence for him. He became a government informant when prosecutors began investigating his operation in 2018. Singer pleaded guilty in 2019 to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice. The obstruction of justice charge comes from Singer giving intel to parents in 2019 that there was an investigation underway, even though he was cooperating with law enforcement.

The most famous of the parents who were rounded up in the FBI’s case were actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. What is interesting is how the two actresses handled getting caught in writing checks to Singer to get their kids into college. Huffman immediately cooperated with prosecutors and ended up serving the shortest prison term. Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, insisted to the bitter end that they did nothing wrong.

That sweep saw Huffman sentenced in September 2019 to two weeks in a federal prison. Relatively light compared to what other parents were given, the leniency came from Huffman having made an agreement with prosecutors almost from the moment she was arrested. The short sentence also came out of the fact that Huffman had handed over just $15,000 to Singer, as opposed to the half a million Loughlin and her fashion designer spouse Mossimo Giannulli paid out for their daughters.

Along with hefty fines, the unrepentant When Calls the Heart actress and her husband were sentenced to two months and five months respectively for their participation in the scam. The couple gave $500,000 to Singer and his phony Foundation to have “their offspring designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew,” as the March 2019 indictment revealed.

Both actresses have since re-started their careers after serving their sentences.

Singer won’t bounce back so quickly. He now lives in a trailer park for senior citizens in St. Petersburg, Florida. He gives paddle boarding lessons to veterans and autistic children. Besides the prison sentence, the judge ordered three years of supervised release, more than $10M in restitution to the IRS, and he has to forfeit millions of dollars in assets. Does he have millions of dollars in assets if he’s living a humble life in a trailer park? That part of the story is unclear.

He told the judge he is ashamed of himself.

Mr. Singer told the judge that he was ashamed of what he had done. “All my life I wanted to help kids and their families,” he said. Looking tanned and fit in a sleekly tailored pinstripe suit, he showed little emotion.

He said he had embraced his father’s belief that “to lie was acceptable as long as it brought victory.”

“Winning and keeping score used to be paramount,” he said, adding that he was trying to change that, with therapy and counseling by friends and family.

Some of the schools involved include Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, the University of Southern California, Wake Forest and the University of Texas at Austin. None were under indictment or on trial. Nonetheless, their reputations took a hit as the admissions fraud case became known. The scandal certainly exposed the messiness of the admissions process.