Full House star Lori Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison for her role in the college admissions scandal, just hours after her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, received a five-month sentence. The couple’s primary concern is that they will not be allowed to see their daughters, Isabella Giannulli and Olivia Jade Giannulli, while in prison due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prosecutors said the couple paid William Rick Singer $500,000 in total to get their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as crew recruits, even though neither of them participated in the sport.
Loughlin and Giannulli “knew” the sentencing was coming, but it did not make Friday easier, an insider told InTouch Weekly. “Lori has been dreading this time,” the insider said. “She’s been trying to prepare by doing yoga and meditation, but there’s nothing that could ease her fear and sense of doom.” According to the source, Loughlin understands that she avoided a “long sentence,” but it is still sad to not see her daughters. The couple thought they could “spread out their prison time” so one of them could be at home with their daughters while the other was behind bars, but it did not work out that way.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Giannulli and Loughlin were among 50 people charged in the college admissions scandal, codenamed Operation Varsity Blues, in March 2019. The two initially planned to fight the charges, but after over a year in court, they both agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in May. The two were sentenced on Friday. Loughlin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud. In addition to their prison sentences, they both face two years of supervised release. Loughlin was recommended a $150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service, and her husband was sentenced to 250 hours of community service and a $250,000 fine.
Giannulli faced a harsher penalty because he “engaged more directly” with Singer, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling wrote in a detention memo released earlier this week. “Loughlin took a less active role, but was nonetheless fully complicit, eagerly enlisting Singer a second time for her younger daughter, and coaching her daughter not to ‘say too much’ to her high school’s legitimate college counselor, lest he catch on to their fraud,” Lelling wrote.
During Friday’s hearing, Loughlin took responsibility for her actions in an appearance via Zoom. “I made an awful decision. I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process and in doing so, I ignored my intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass,” she said, reports The Associated Press. “I have great faith in God and I believe in redemption and I will do everything in my power to redeem myself and use this experience as a catalyst to do good.”
