Lori Loughlin & Husband to Serve Prison Time for College Admissions Scandal
After months of uncertainty, Full House star Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Gianulli will serve prison time after their involvement in the college admissions bribery scam.
The news emerged after the couple agreed to a plea deal, according to The Associated Press, which comes just over a year after the scandal first broke. In March 2019, Loughlin, her husband, and others including Felicity Huffman were named in a case that involved parents paying money to alter their children’s SAT scores, create phony athletic records, and more in order to gain admission into prestigious schools.
Loughlin will serve two months behind bars and Giannulli has agreed to serve five months under the deal which will have to be approved by the judge. Their guilty plea will be entered on Friday, May 22. The couple was set to go to trial in October after they were brought up on charges stating they paid $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California under the false pretenses that they were members of their high school’s crew team.
After maintaining their innocence for over a year, the pair’s bid to dismiss the case was thrown out earlier this month. They have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and prosecutors have agreed to dismiss charges of money laundering and bribery, which were added after the case was first filed.
In the case known as “Operation Varsity Blues,” Loughlin and Giannulli were among 50 people arrested. Fellow actress Huffman was indicted and plead guilty after paying $15,000 to have someone change her daughter’s SAT scores. She served two weeks in prison in late 2019.
No word on when Loughlin and Giannulli will report to prison, but considering the ongoing social distancing due to COVID-19, it likely won’t be for some time. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.