Scam big got 761 in ‘side door’

He got kids into college though a “side door” — and now faces up to 65 years behind a cell door.

The architect of a $25 million college admissions scam that ensnared actresses Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman and dozens of others, crowed about his chicanery, not knowing the FBI was listening in.

William Singer (photo), who pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Boston Federal Court to racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, claimed to have orchestrated 761 “side door” admission deals for the children of the “wealthiest families in the U.S.” in a phone conversation recorded by the FBI.

“They don’t want to be messing around with this thing. And so they want in at certain schools. So I did 761 what I would call ‘side doors.’ There is a front door, which means you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is 10 times more money,” he explained.

“And I’ve created this side door in, because the back door, when you go through institutional advancement, as you know, everybody’s got a friend of friend, who know somebody who knows somebody but there’s no guarantee, they’re just gonna give you a second look. My families want a guarantee.”

According to investigators, Singer established an elaborate scheme that involved him paying people to take tests for the children of his wealthy clients and bribing proctors and administrators to look the other way. Prosecutors said he used a phony charity, The Key Worldwide Foundation, to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to college coaches to pretend incoming students had been top athletes.

Prosperous parents paid between $200,000 and $6.5 million to ensure their children would get into certain schools, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest and the University of Southern California.