It is being reported that Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli are now facing some brand new charges in the college admissions scandal. According to ABC News, a Boston grand jury has returned new charges against 18 more people, and the the celebrity couple are among them. According to a statement from the Department of Justice, the District of Massachusetts grand jury alleges that 11 defendants “conspired to commit federal program bribery by bribing employees of the University of Southern California (USC) to facilitate their children’s admission.”
Additionally, seven university officials who are facing new charges as well, have been identified as: Gordon Ernst, Donna Heinel, Jorge Salcedo, Mikaela Sanford, Jovan Vavic, Niki Williams and William Ferguson.
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Per the DOJ statement, the individuals are accused of “conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, and honest services mail and wire fraud, in connection with the previously charged scheme to accept bribes and engage in other forms of fraud to facilitate cheating on standardized admissions tests and to secure the admission of students to elite universities by designating them as purported athletic recruits or members of other favored admissions categories.”
Furthermore, the DOJ said that Ernst, Heinel, Salcedo, Sanford, Vavic and Williams are also facing “substantive wire and honest services wire fraud charges in connection with the scheme,” later adding that Ernst, Heinel, and Salcedo also face new charges of “conspiring to commit federal programs bribery by soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate the admission of students to the universities where they worked: Georgetown University, the University of Southern California, and The University of California – Los Angeles.”
The new charges come after actress Felicity Huffman, who was also implicated in the scandal, began her 14-day prison sentence in California.
According to a source who spoke with ET, “Felicity is doing really well and she’s holding up.” Over the weekend, Huffman’s husband — actor William H. Macy — and their 17-year-old daughter Georgia visited the former Desperate Housewives star, and the source stated that “the visits went nicely.”
“They spent a lot of time together. They sat in the visitors room for a few hours and spoke,” the insider shared, adding that the visit was especially “hard for Georgia.”
“Her mother’s in prison garb — it’s very difficult,” the source continued. “This is not to be taken lightly. It’s federal prison. This is not ‘club fed’ — it’s just not. It’s not like the articles on online.”
“She’s in a room with inmates with a toilet in the middle of the floor,” the source added of Huffman. “She’s in prison garb, and there’s work duty — it’s pretty serious stuff.”
Loughlin and Giannulli are due back in court sometime later this year or in early 2020.
