Actress Lori Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli was sentenced to five months in connection with their efforts to get their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California.
CBS News reports that the couple received the sentences after agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in a natonwide college admissions scandal.
The two were accused of paying $500,000 to secure their two daughters' admission to the USC by faking credentials for them as potential athletic recruits. A fake resume for their daughter Olivia Jade shows the couple pretended she was an accomplished rower.
Loughlin, 56, will also pay a $150,000 fine, serve 100 hours of community service and be under supervised release for two years. Giannulli, 57, is required to pay a fine of $250,000, serve 250 hours of community service and serve two years of supervised release.
"I deeply regret the harm that my actions have caused my daughters my wife and others," Giannulli said.
Attorneys for the couple initially contended said their actions were appropriate and the money they paid were "legitimate donations." Attorneys argued that federal agents had coached William "Rick" Singer, the alleged ringleader of the admissions scheme, to "bend the truth," but U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton ruled the prosecutors' actions did not constitute misconduct.
Prior to rendering the sentence, Judge Gorton ripped into Giannulli for committing a "crime motivated by hubris" that is "defined by wanton arrogance and excessive pride."
Loughlin and Giannulli are the 21st and 22nd parents to be sentenced in the college admissions case, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston says.
Federal prosecutors said that in 2016, Loughlin and Giannulli agreed to have Singer facilitate their older daughter’s admission to USC as a purported crew recruit. In an August 2016 email, Singer told the couple that he would “create a coxswain profile.” Giannulli emailed Singer a picture of his older daughter purporting to row on an ergometer for inclusion in the falsified profile.
Giannulli further agreed to make purported charitable contributions totaling $250,000 to facilitate his daughter’s fraudulent admission to USC. Giannulli caused $50,000 to be paid to an account belong to the USC athletics administrator and paid $200,000 to Singer’s sham charity, Key Worldwide Foundation (KWF).
Giannulli forwarded the invoice from KWF to his financial adviser writing: “Good news my daughter [ ] is in [U]SC . . . bad [news] is I had to work the system.”
In 2017, Loughlin and Giannulli agreed with Singer to facilitate their younger daughter’s admission to USC as a purported crew recruit even though she, too, had never participated in the sport. In July 2017, Singer emailed the couple telling them he would “build an athletic profile for USC” and noted that he would falsely present her as a coxswain. Shortly thereafter, Giannulli, copying Loughlin, emailed Singer a photograph of their younger daughter on an ergometer.
In November 2017, Singer emailed Loughlin and Giannulli a “likely letter” stating that their younger daughter had been provisionally admitted to USC as an athletic recruit. Loughlin, copying Giannulli, responded: “This is wonderful news!”
Thereafter, Giannulli caused $50,000 to be paid to a USC athletic account controlled by the USC athletic administrator and $200,000 to be paid to KWF.
Giannulli forwarded the KWF invoice to his financial advisoe, noting that it was “the last college ‘donation’ for” his daughter, and asking, “Can’t I write this off?”
