‘VARSITY BLUES’ CLUES
Feds’ document dump gives look behind the scenes at parents’ calls, emails
Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli’s dirty laundry was aired out by feds Tuesday in an exhaustive filing featuring phone call transcripts, emails, six-figure invoices and checks revealing parents’ close collaboration with “Varsity Blues” mastermind Rick Singer.
Giannulli joked about his dismissal of a University of Southern California official’s offer to flag his daughter’s application, when he replied to the official in an email, “I think we are squared away.”
“The nicest I’ve been at blowing off somebody,” Giannulli wrote to Loughlin in forwarding his email.
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to co-conspirators to successfully enroll their daughters at USC as phony crew recruits. USC last year confirmed both daughters have since left the university.
The documents were released as part of prosecutors’ response Tuesday to parents who demanded more evidence from prosecutors in the case.
Other damning documents include a copy of Giannulli’s $50,000 check to USC for its athletic arena; a redacted USC acceptance letter; a cordial conversation about the daughters’ bogus admission between Loughlin and Singer after his cooperation with feds; and Giannulli’s pledge to keep the admissions secret when golfing with former USC athletic director Pat Haden.
“Best to keep Pat out of it,” Singer told Giannulli in an email. “When I met with him a year ago about (your older daughter) he felt you were good for a million plus.” “HAH!” Giannulli replied. William McGlashan, accused of paying $50,000 to Singer’s foundation to rig his son’s ACT test, said “I would do that in a heartbeat” to Singer’s suggestion of the fake athletic recruitment scheme, a July 2018 call transcript reads.
McGlashan also laughed at Singer’s explanation of photoshopping prospective college students for fake athletic profiles, telling him a botched water polo photo was “pretty funny.”
“The way the world works these days is unbelievable,” McGlashan said, according to transcripts.
Massachusetts parent John Wilson, whose two $500,000 wire transfers for his child’s bogus admission were included in the documents, freely suggested to Singer in a November 2018 conversation universities his child could be admitted to, no matter Singer’s expensive suggested prices.
“I could actually even go to Y– uh, you don’t want Yale, because you thought that they were too what? Too conservative or they were too liberal?” Singer, then cooperating with prosecutors, allegedly told Wilson.
“Too liberal,” Wilson replied, according to the transcript.
Lawyers for parents did not respond to requests for comment.
A status conference for parents is scheduled Friday in U.S. District Court, although the defendants are not required to attend.