It was reported last week that Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid $500,000 for their two daughters to be designated as crew recruits for the University of Southern California’s crew team despite not being athletes, and it’s now being reported that Loughlin’s younger daughter, Olivia Jade, didn’t actually fill out her application to the school herself
A 204-page affidavit in support of a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Boston last Tuesday details an email allegedly sent by Loughlin to Rick Singer, the man who organized the nationwide cheating scandal and has pled guilty to multiple charges.
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“On or about December 12, 2017, Laughlin e-mailed [Singer], copying Gianulli and their younger daughter, to request guidance on how to complete the formal USC application in the wake of her daughter’s provisional acceptance as a recruited athlete,” the affidavit reads, according to PEOPLE. “Loughlin wrote, ‘[Our younger daughter] has not submitted all her colleges [sic] apps and is confused on how to do so. I want to make sure she gets those in. Can you tell us how to proceed?’”
The affidavit adds that someone else filled out Jade’s application for her, stating that “[Singer] responded by directing an employee to submit the applications on behalf of the Giannulli’s younger daughter.”
Jade is currently a freshman at USC, though reports have claimed that she and her sister do not plan on returning to the university after the scandal.
The teen previously discussed her college enrollment in an August 2018 YouTube Video, noting that she wasn’t exactly looking forward to the academic side of things.
“I don’t know how much of school I’m going to attend,” she said. “But I do want the experience of game days, partying. I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
Jade is an influencer with 1.9 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.4 million followers on Instagram, though she has lost multiple sponsorship deals in the wake of the scandal, including partnerships with Sephora and TRESemmé.
In a video from her senior year of high school in May 2018, the 19-year-old joked that she was “never at school.”
“I’m, like, excited to go… do the school prank,” she said. “But I’m also literally never at school that I think my class doesn’t even — and maybe they forget I go there!”
Jade then laughed, saying, “I’m just kidding!”
Neither Jade nor her sister, Isabella Rose, rowed crew, but their parents were reportedly directed to have the girls pose for photos on rowing machines, which they then sent to Singer. The affidavit states that Singer devised a plan to “present their younger daughter, falsely, as a crew coxswain for the L.A. Marina Club team, and requested that the Giannullis’s send an ‘Action Picture,’ asking a few days later for a picture on the ‘erg’ — or rowing machine, which Giannulli did a few days later.”
Loughlin and Giannulli were both arrested last week on a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. They have since been released on bail.
Photo Credit: Instagram / @oliviajade
