Lori Loughlin pleads not guilty to new charges in college admissions scandal
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, J. Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty Friday to new bribery charges filed against them in the college admissions scandal, according to documents filed in federal court.
Loughlin and Giannulli, a fashion designer, were among 11 parents charged last week in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Boston, which alleges they conspired with William “Rick” Singer, a Newport Beach consultant, to commit not just fraud and money laundering, but federal program bribery as well to secure their children’s fraudulent admissions to USC.
Prosecutors had previously warned the defendants they would face more charges if they didn’t plead guilty.
Those parents are now charged with conspiring to commit fraud, money laundering and federal program bribery.
While the indictments don’t allege new criminal acts, they do contain details of Singer’s interactions with parents that weren’t previously known. In the case of Loughlin and Giannulli, the indictment says, the fashion designer emailed his accountant in April 2017 to explain a $200,000 invoice he’d received from Singer.
College admissions scandal: Lori Loughlin faces choice as other parents plead guilty and her daughters exit USC
The couple paid $250,000 in all to misrepresent their older daughter as a recruited coxswain and bribe Donna Heinel, a former USC athletics official, to slip her into the school, prosecutors allege.
“Good news my daughter ... is in [U]SC,” Giannulli wrote to his accountant, according to the indictment. “Bad is I had to work the system.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
