Lori Loughlin’s husband Mossimo Giannulli has been implicated in the same college admissions scam that his wife is caught up in.
According to legal documents, the couple are alleged to have “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC.”
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For his part, Giannulli purportedly corresponded with a USC official regarding getting their daughter Olivia Jade into the college by means of issuing a bribe.
“We just met with [our older daughter’s] college counselor this AM,” one email allegedly sent by Giannulli read in part. “I’d like to maybe sit with you after your session with the girls as I have some concerns and want to fully understand the game plan and make sure we have a roadmap for success as it relates to [our daughter] and getting her into a school other than ASU!”
If his name sounds familiar, that’s because Mossimo Giannulli is the name behind the Mossimo brand that is carried widely by Target stores.
The designer is originally from Southern California and started the company in 1986. Ironically, he was a “fake student” of USC at the time.
“He, like, built his whole entire brand and he wasn’t actually, like — I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this — ever enrolled in college. But he, like, faked his way through it and then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought was going to college,” Olivia Jade said in a recent interview of how her father carried out his plan. “That’s, like, such a different time. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that, but it’s okay.”
He and Loughlin married in 1997, with Oliva Jade being born the following year, and their second daughter Isabella in 1999.
In 2000, Giannulli sold the exclusive rights to the Mossimo brand to Target, where the line was carried until 2017. In 2006, Giannulli sold Mossimo to Iconix Brand Group. Buzzfeed reports that he Mossimo made $88 million in cash and stocks from the deal. More recently, Giannulli has been running a luxury golf brand.
On Tuesday, Giannulli was taken into police custody over his involvement with the admissions scandal, in which he and Loughlin reportedly conspired to get their daughters admitted by way of the USC’s crew team despite either of the girls being on a row team. Loughlin surrendered to police on Wednesday.
Photo Credit: Donato Sardella / Getty
