Mossimo Giannulli and Lori Loughlin
Mossimo Giannulli, the fashion designer and husband of Full House actress Lori Loughlin, has been sentenced in “Operation Varsity Blues.” He received five months in prison as part of his plea agreement.
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli set to be sentenced tomorrow at 2:30 pm and 11:00 am, respectively, for securing the fraudulent admission of their daughters to USC as purported athletic recruits #CollegeAdmissionsScandal
— U.S. Attorney MA (@DMAnews1) August 20, 2020
The government’s key witness William “Rick” Singer was also the admitted mastermind in the wide-ranging college admissions scandal. He flipped, and turned on a slew of parents and school officials. According to the prosecution’s account, the mom and dad defendants bought their children’s way into higher education.
Giannulli and Loughlin were no exception. They pleaded guilty in May, after initially putting up a defense, and arguing that the government got Singer to lie about them.
As part of the scheme, they tried to get their daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Giannulli into the University of Southern California as recruits on the crew team even though the kids did not participate in the sport. The couple paid a total of $500,000 in bribes, authorities said.
From the original criminal complaint:
In an e-mail on or about July 24, 2016, Singer advised Giannulli that his older daughter’ s academic qualifications were at or just below the “low end” of USC’s admission standards. Thereafter, the Giannullis agreed with [Singer] to use bribes to facilitate her admission to USC as a recruited crew coxswain, even though she did not row competitively or otherwise participate in crew.
Prosecutors said in a hearing on Monday that Giannulli was “more active” in this scheme than his wife, but nonetheless insisted Loughlin was still responsible for what she did.
Loughlin is scheduled to be sentenced later today at 2:30 p.m. EST.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this article.
[Image via Paul Marotta/Getty Images]
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