Rick Singer had grand plans beyond college admissions. Then scandal brought him down
LOS ANGELES - William "Rick" Singer stepped into a conference room at a Newport Beach Marriott one morning last January to hear how his master plan was progressing.
He had paid for the flights and hotel rooms to assemble a group that included an accomplished business executive from the sports world, a Hollywood talent agent, and old acquaintances who had scratched together careers in marketing and other fields.
One by one, they updated Singer on business ventures they were building and he was funding.
One talked about her progress building a company that would offer less expensive versions of Singer's exclusive college admissions coaching to the masses online. Another brought him up to speed on We Got U, a concierge service marketed to Asian students at U.S. colleges. A third told the room about the computer algorithm he and Singer were trying to develop that would analyze students' athletic and academic prowess and spit out the ideal colleges for them to attend.
There was an online addiction counseling service, life coaching for middle-aged women, and something called "Versatile PhD."
"It was classic Rick," said Phil Wright, who
