Loughlin seen fretting in college scandal
“Full House” star Lori Loughlin is reportedly filled with dread after a fellow parent with a strikingly similar case got six months behind bars in the college admissions bribery scandal.
The actress and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, saw the stiff sentence handed down to California dad Toby MacFarlane on Wednesday and became “very concerned” and “discouraged,” a source told People magazine.
It was the longest sentence yet in the high-profile case, given to a parent who accepted responsibility and pleaded guilty to essentially the same thing Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of doing.
MacFarlane, 56, admitted he paid $450,000 to have his daughter and son admitted to the University of Southern California (USC) as phony athletic recruits.
Loughlin and Giannulli, meanwhile, are fighting charges they paid $500,000 to have their two daughters admitted to USC as elite athletes recruited by the school’s crew team, even though the girls had no competitive rowing experience.
Prosecutors say the daughters – Olivia Jade, 20, and Isabella Rose, 21 – even posed on rowing machines for staged photos added to their applications.
“There’s a similarity to the cases…And they’re smart enough to see that,” the source told People.
“They’re very concerned. If this guy pleaded guilty and was still given six months, what does that mean for them?” the source asked. “If they’re convicted, their sentences are going to be very severe. Also, they face more charges than Mr. MacFarlane did. They’re very discouraged.”
It was back in April that MacFarlane, a former real estate executive from Del Mar, Calif., agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Loughlin and Giannulli were facing the exact same fraud charge in early April after prosecutors went public with the case dubbed Operation Varsity Blues in March and arrested most of the parents in an early-morning sting.
Unlike MacFarlane, the actress and her husband refused to take a deal. They were then slapped with superseding indictments on April 9 and Oct. 22 adding additional charges of money laundering and bribery.
If convicted of all three charges at trial, they face a maximum of 45 years in federal prison each.
Loughlin, 55 and a Queens native, and Giannulli, 56, have hired a high-powered team of lawyers to defend them, but their worries are mounting, the source told People.
“It’s very hard for Lori not to obsess about this case and what her future will be,” the source reportedly said.
“She knows that she should focus on all the good things in her life, but it’s almost impossible for her to do it,” the source said. “This is hanging over her head every single day.”
In the case of MacFarlane, the former senior executive at WFG National Title Insurance Company, joined forces with admitted scam mastermind William “Rick” Singer and used his wealth to bribe officials at USC.
He first convinced two corrupt coaching staffers to gin up a fake soccer profile for his daughter in 2013 and fraudulently gain her admission to the school.
“On the soccer or lacrosse field I am the one who looks like a boy amongst girls with my hair tied up, arms sleeveless, and blood and bruises from head to toe,” the ghostwritten application read, according to an FBI affidavit.
The daughter was admitted as an athletic recruit but never played soccer for USC before graduating in 2018, officials said.