“The child would not know, but the family would know,” he explained to the judge.
Singer’s company, also known as the Key, describes itself as “the world’s largest private life coaching and college counseling company,” located in 81 cities in the U.S. and five other countries. It offers “one-on-one support for students to help them design and ultimately realize a life plan” and reaches “the world’s most respected families,” according to its website, which for an academic enterprise has its share of dropped punctuation and erratic style choices.
The “CEO and Master Coach” worked in another industry that touches many Americans’ lives. According to the site, Singer ran retail call centers for The Money Store and West Corp. and was hired by WestBridge Capital, a venture capital fund in India, to head up FirstRing, a company with an 800-employee call center in Bangalore that was sold to ICICI Bank in 2003.
West Corp. and WestBridge Capital didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The Money Store’s parent company didn’t respond right away to voicemail messages.
The website claims that “a new Key vertical” was recently started with financial services companies including Morgan Stanley, UBS Group AG, Oppenheimer & Co. and Pimco “to advantage the Key life coaching model for both private wealth management clients and employees.”
A representative of Morgan Stanley said the bank’s relationship with the Key ended in 2013, declining to comment on its nature. UBS said only that it doesn’t currently have an association with the company. Oppenheimer said it had “a very limited relationship with Key Worldwide Foundation, which it subsequently severed.” Pimco declined to comment.
Key Worldwide Foundation took in just over $7 million from 2013 to 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, according to public filings. It was set up in 2014 to “provide guidance, encouragement and opportunity to disadvantaged students around the world,” according to its website, which says it pays for 30 students a year to “attend the Key’s Premium College Coaching program.”
It paid out $1.34 million to Ernst, the former Georgetown coach, for “consulting.”
Ernst couldn’t be reached for comment.
This article provided by Bloomberg News.