Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giaunnulli‘s daughters were hardly clueless victims in their parents’ plot to bribe their way into the University of Southern California, prosecutors allege in court papers.
Instead, they told Olivia Jade to lie to her high school guidance counselor. The pair agreed to plead guilty to fraud for their role in paying William “Rick” Singer $500,000 to get Olivia and Isabella admitted to USC as fake crew team recruits. (They never played the sport, and instead posed for photos showing them rowing).
In court docs, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling noted that Giannulli confronted the unnamed counselor after he told USC that Olivia wasn’t a rower. When asked if she should list USC as her top school of choice, Loughlin reportedly replied: “Yes…. But it might be a flag for the weasel to meddle.”
Giannulli added, “F— him,” and called him a “nosey bastard,” prosecutors allege in the docs.
Loughlin went on to instruct her daughter not to say “too much to that man.”
Giannulli allegedly confronted the counselor and, according to the documents, “aggressively asked what the counselor was telling USC about his daughters and why the counselor was trying to ruin or get in the way of their opportunities.”
The pair will be sentenced Friday. Lelling suggested that Loughlin serve two months and pay a $150,000 fine along with two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Giannulli, meanwhile, would serve five months in prison, pay a $250,000 fine with two years of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.
