Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are currently embroiled in the college admissions scandal, with both facing multiple charges that could land them years in prison. According to Us Weekly, Loughlin’s friends think Giannulli was the mastermind behind the couple’s alleged involvement, and as a result, aren’t exactly his biggest fans.
“Everyone feels bad for her,” a source said. “They think the situation was something concocted by her husband.”
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“Her friends don’t like him,” the insider added.
Loughlin and Giannulli married in 1997 and share daughters Isabella Rose and Olivia Jade.
The couple recently pleaded not guilty to their charges in the admissions scheme, which include conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
According to the indictment, the two allegedly “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.”
Giannulli recently made headlines of his own when it was revealed that during his college years, he had told his parents that he was attending USC but instead took their money and used it to start his fashion line.
In a recently resurfaced 2016 post on fashion blog The Hundreds, Giannulli discussed his college scam, with the blog writing that the designer falsified his report cards and tuition bills to convince his parents he was enrolled as a full-time student and get them to pay for school. CNN reported that the 55-year-old was enrolled in a non-degree program with “no formal admission requirements” at the university in 1984.
“[USC] was expensive, so that was how I was starting my company,” Giannulli said. “I used all that cash … I used to have hundreds of thousands of cash in my top drawer in my fraternity house. And I was like, ‘this is kind of too easy.’”
Olivia Jade referenced her dad’s days as a faux-USC student during a March interview in which she said Giannulli “faked his way” through college.
“He didn’t come from a lot so it’s cool to see that he built it all himself,” Jade said on the Zach Sang Show podcast. “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. That’s, like, such a different time. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that, but it’s okay.”
Shortly after the admissions scandal was revealed, Loughlin and Giannulli’s friends reportedly began distancing themselves from the couple.
“Lori and Mossimo are finding out quickly who their real friends are,” a source told PEOPLE. “It’s not like they are the victims of a crime. They are the crime.”
“Many of their friends don’t want to be associated with them right now,” the insider added. “Their friends are shocked at the allegations.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Donato Sardella
