PLEA PRESSURE
New U. bribe rap turns up heat on Loughlin
“Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her husband were slapped with new bribery charges Tuesday that could “substantially” increase their prison exposure in the college admissions scam, one expert said.
The new counts were piled on top of the wire fraud and money-laundering charges already levied on the pair, who are accused of shelling out $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake rowing recruits.
“The government is ratcheting up the stakes the closer we get to trial in order to attempt to force people to wave the white flag,” Brad Bailey, a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts now in private practice, told the Daily News.
“The feds are playing hardball,” he said.
A federal grand jury in Boston delivered the new bribery charge against Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli and nine other parents still fighting claims that they paid secret bribes to get their kids into elite universities through
“side-door” schemes.
While prior paperwork claimed Loughlin and Giannulli staged photos of their daughters on rowing machines as part of their fraudulent applications, the new indictment details an email allegedly sent Aug. 18, 2016, by admitted scam mastermind William “Rick” Singer.
In the email, Singer allegedly told Loughlin and Giannuilli he needed a copy of their older daughter’s transcript and test scores “very soon” to go along with the coxswain credentials he was fabricating.
“It would probably help to get a picture of her on an ERG in workout clothes like a real athlete too,” Singer said, according to the new indictment.
“Fantastic,” Giannulli allegedly replied. “Will get all.”
The third superseding indictment claims the parents were part of a conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, meaning they “corruptly” paid money that went to someone at USC to get their children into the school.
Prosecutors sought the extra charges after “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced last month to only 14 days in prison for paying $15,000 to rig her daughter’s SAT exam.
Other parents who pleaded guilty under early deals received sentences ranging from a few weeks to several months.
Bailey said the new charges could “substantially” increase the prison exposure for the remaining defendants.
While the new bribery charge on its own carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison — which is less than the 10-year maximums for Loughlin’s previous charges — it gives prosecutors a new chance to link sentencing to the amount of money paid, Bailey said.
This is notable because U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani previously accepted the argument that the dollar amount tied to the each defendant’s wire fraud charge didn’t accurately represent real loss or gain, so she didn’t use it to jack up prison time at sentencing.
But sentences for bribery charges are “normally” driven by the amount of the bribe involved, Bailey said.
“I believe this is the government’s avenue to try to drive around the case precedent that found the money spent in this case does not represent either loss or gain,” Bailey told The News. “It really could be a big-time hammer.”
While he previously calculated Loughlin’s possible prison exposure at around 37 months, he now believes she could “easily” get up to 51 months or more if convicted as charged, he said.
Loughlin and the other parents almost certainly could have avoided the new charges if they joined the other holdouts who decided to plead guilty over the last week, experts said.
Those parents who reversed course, including former Pacific Investment Management Company chief Douglas Hodge and Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs, were not among the the 15 names listed on the new indictment.
“It’s not unusual for prosecutors to reach out and say, ‘Look, fair warning, this is your last chance. If you don’t plead guilty, we’re going to supersede, and we’re going to be pushing for higher sentences,’ ” Bailey said. “Looking at the new indictment, I’d say that’s how it played out.”