Where Is Rick Singer From Netflix’s ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ Now?

Netflix’s new documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, takes a closer look at the man behind the scandal that had everyone buzzing in 2019: William Rick Singer.

Directed by Chris Smith, Operation Varsity Blues features actor Matthew Modine as Rick Singer in reenactments of real phone calls Singer had with wealthy parents, who were looking to use Singer’s services to get their child a guaranteed acceptance to some of the nation’s most selective colleges. The calls are real—recreated from FBI wiretaps—though the film notes at the beginning that some conversations have been condensed or modified “for time and clarity.”

Through these reenactments—alongside interviews with experts, journalists, and former clients and colleagues of Singer—the film paints a picture of a man who intimately understood the college admission system. He had a method that targeted under-the-radar sports, like sailing or water polo. He bribed coaches and athletic directors at schools like Yale into “recruiting” students that had no idea how to sail or play water polo. He photoshopped fake images of students playing those sports, or encouraged parents to stage photoshoots. He also delivered fraud SAT scores, by paying off a test proctor to take the exam for the students. He collected nearly $25 million from parents between the years 2011 and 2018, until the operation was busted by the FBI.

Singer agreed to cooperate with the FBI investigation—code-named Operation Varsity Blues—in order to secure convictions for the parents who used his service. Singer plead guilty to racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the US, and obstruction of justice.

Where is Rick Singer from Operation Varsity Blues now? Is Rick Singer in jail?

Though he could face a sentence of up to 65 years, according to a CNN report, Rick Singer is not yet in prison. Because Singer is still cooperating with the FBI investigation, and because the investigation is still ongoing as the authorities try to track down Singer’s clients, he is currently living as a free man. According to his former colleague, educational consultant Margie Amott—who was interviewed for the documentary—Singer is still living in Sacramento, California. “He still drives around town,” she says in the film. “He’s still in his athletic clothes. He doesn’t look any flashier. He swims twice a day at a local tennis club.”

She continued, “My understanding is that he’s telling people he’s not going to jail because they know the judge, etcetera. Knowing Rick Singer, you don’t know what to believe. You don’t know if he believes it, or if it’s an outright lie. But he’s plead guilty to four felonies. I just have to believe he’s going to jail.”

Robert Fisher, a lawyer who defended the former Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer, offered further insight as to why Singer is not yet in jail. “If he didn’t cooperate, he would have been charged, maybe convicted already. Right now, he’s out, a free man still. His cooperation won’t be complete until the very last person charged in this conspiracy is sentenced, and that is most likely going to be a while from now.”

According to the official Justice Department website, there is no sentencing hearing scheduled for Singer at this time.

Watch Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal on Netflix