Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli plead guilty, will serve prison time

Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli agreed to a deal to plead guilty and serve prison time in the college scam.

Loughlin, 55, has agreed to serve two months behind bars and Giannulli, 56, has agreed to serve five months under the deal that must be approved by the judge. They are scheduled to plead guilty Friday via video conference.

“I think they made a calculated assessment that the risks were just too great” to bring the case to trial, said former federal prosecutor Bradley Simon.

The couple insisted they were innocent and generally duped, thinking they were giving the money to charity.

THEY DID LOOK GUILTY

They did have their girls pose in rowboats and pretend they crewed.

The Hollywood couple were scheduled to go to trial in October on charges that they paid $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew team recruits, even though neither of them played the sport. They helped create fake athletic profiles for their daughters by sending the admitted ringleader of the scheme, admissions consultant Rick Singer, photos of the teens posing on rowing machines, authorities said.

The two agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in a plea agreement filed in Boston’s federal court. Giannulli will also plead guilty to a charge of honest services wire and mail fraud, prosecutors said. Prosecutors have agreed to dismiss charges of money laundering and federal programs bribery that were added after the case was filed.

Under Loughlin’s plea deal, she will also pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. Giannulli has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service.

Simon said the couple’s lawyers may think that Loughlin and Giannulli have a chance of avoiding prison altogether and serving their punishments at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It might be safe to say their careers are over. They received tremendous bad publicity and were never able to turn it around. They lost in the court of public opinion.

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