After Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli indicated they were going to fight the charges over their alleged role in the college admissions scandal, the disgraced ‘Fuller House’ star now says she’ll plead guilty.
Lori Loughlin, 55, and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, 56, have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in the “Operation: Varsity Blues” nationwide college admissions scandal. This sudden change of face came on Thursday (May 21) when the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts announced the couple was entering a plea agreement. Lori will plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while her husband will plead guilty to “to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.”
If the presiding judge accepts the plea agreement, Lori will avoid possibly spending years in prison. Instead, Lori would be sentenced to two months in jail, pay a $150,000 fine, and have two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. Her husband would face a harsher sentence, serving five months in prison, paying a $250,000 fine, and spending two years of supervised release (with 250 hours of community service.) The couple is scheduled to enter the guilty plea on Friday (May 22) at 11:30 AM.
“Under the plea agreements filed today, these defendants will serve prison terms reflecting their respective roles in a conspiracy to corrupt the college admissions process and which are consistent with prior sentences in this case. We will continue to pursue accountability for undermining the integrity of college admissions,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a statement. In addition to the fraud charges, the couple was also charged with conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. In total, Lori and Mossimo were looking at the potential of spending anywhere around 50 years in prison and million dollars’ worth of fines – each. Now, they wait to see if the judge will allow them to avoid this fate.
Lori and Mossimo are the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the nationwide college admissions scandal. They were accused of paying $500,000 as part of a scheme to admit their daughters – Olivia Jade Giannulli, 20, and Isabella Rose Giannulli, 21, — into the University of Southern California as members of the crew team (neither daughter participated in the rowing sport.) The children are no longer attending USC, the school announced in October 2019. Initially, Lori was willing to fight the charges, believing she had an “amazing legal team” that would prove her innocence.
Felicity Huffman was another famous name caught in the nationwide sting. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2019 for paying $15,000 as part of a scheme to boost her daughter’s SAT scores. She was sentenced to 14 days in prison (with a $30,000 fine.) She served 11 days before being released early due to a California Bureau of Prisons policy.
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
