Federal prosecutors had been at an impasse with Loughlin and her co-defendant dressmaker husband Mossimo Giannulli for just over a year. the govt tacked on additional charges on twice in a clear effort to influence the defendants to enter more seriously into plea negotiations. Defense lawyers attempted to argue that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence which the FBI coerced key witness William “Rick” Singer to lie; they tried to urge the case tossed out entirely. the govt admitted it made a mistake, but U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton declined to toss the case.
Loughlin and Giannulli eventually reached a plea agreement with the govt that meant months in prison, not years. They each pleaded guilty to at least one count of conspiracy to commit wire and fraud and to honest services wire and fraud . Judge Gorton accepted the plea deal on Friday, meaning two months in prison for Loughlin.
The terms of the plea deal said Loughlin would serve two months behind bars and pay a $150,000 fine. She agreed to 2 years of supervised release and to serve 100 hours of community service. Giannulli would get five months, pay $250,000, and obtain two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service. This was an enormous difference from fighting 12 criminal counts at trial and facing the likelihood of years in prison.
Loughlin was sentenced to 2 months a couple of hours after her husband was sentenced to 5 months.
The convicted felons’ daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Giannulli were each photographed on rowing machines, and people photos were submitted as a part of fraudulent college applications to the University of Southern California. The celebrity parents were accused of “agree[ing] to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the [University of Southern California (USC)] crew team–despite the very fact that they didn't participate in crew.”
Isabella Giannulli
The prosecution’s sentencing recommendation, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, said Giannulli was “the more active participant within the scheme” to urge their two daughters accepted into the University of Southern California, but maintained that Loughlin was “nonetheless fully complicit.”
“As between the defendants, the evidence suggests that Giannulli was the more active participant within the scheme. He engaged more frequently with Singer, directed the bribe payments to USC and Singer, and personally confronted his daughter’s highschool counselor to stop the scheme from being discovered, brazenly lying about his daughter’s athletic abilities,” the memo said.
Accordingly, Loughlin got a lighter punishment than her husband did.
Jerry Lambe contributed to the present report.
[Image via Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images]
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