Prosecutors request Lori Loughlin get 2 months in prison and Mossimo Giannulli get 5 months
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/18/2020, 9:22 a.m.
Lori Loughlin, in tan at center, leaves as her husband Mossimo Giannulli, in green tie at right, follows behind her outside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on April 3, 2019. Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among 13 parents scheduled to appear in federal court in Boston Wednesday for the first time since they were charged last month in a massive college admissions cheating scandal. They were among 50 people - including coaches, powerful financiers, and entrepreneurs - charged in a brazen plot in which wealthy parents allegedly schemed to bribe sports coaches at top colleges to admit their children. Many of the parents allegedly paid to have someone else take the SAT or ACT exams for their children or correct their answers, guaranteeing them high scores. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)/Credit: Boston Globe/Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images
By Kristina Sgueglia and Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) -- Federal prosecutors formally requested that actress Lori Loughlin be sentenced to two months in prison and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli be sentenced to five months in prison for their roles in the college admissions scam.
The sentencing memorandum follows "agreed-upon" terms after Loughlin and Giannulli pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in May.
The government asked for five months in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service for Giannulli, and a two-month prison term, a $150,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service for Loughlin -- each with two years of supervised release.
Loughlin, best known for her role as Aunt Becky on the sitcom "Full House," and Giannulli had long fought the charges, but in May they pleaded guilty and admitted to allegations that they paid $500,000 as part of a scheme with scam mastermind Rick Singer to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake crew team recruits.
"The crime Giannulli and Loughlin committed was serious," the government writes in the filing. "Over the course of two years, they engaged twice in Singer's fraudulent scheme. They involved both their daughters in the fraud, directing them to pose in staged photographs for use in fake athletic profiles and instructing one daughter how to conceal the scheme from her high school counselor."
The sentencing memo also adds new allegations that Giannulli and Loughlin spoke with their younger daughter, Olivia Jade, about how to deal with a high school counselor skeptical of her crew resume.
When she asked her parents whether she should list USC as her top choice, Loughlin replied, "Yes . . . . But it might be a flag for the weasel to meddle," according to the memo.
Giannulli cursed the counselor and remarked that he was a "nosey bastard," the memo states.
"Don't say too much to that man," Loughlin said.
Prosecutors write that the evidence suggests Giannulli was the more active participant, while Loughlin took a less active role but was "fully complicit."
They call the Giannulli and Loughlin sentence request comparable to those imposed on similarly situated defendants.
Giannulli is scheduled to be sentenced Friday at 11 a.m., and Loughlin is expected to be sentenced later that afternoon.
Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges and is cooperating with federal prosecutors. He has not been sentenced yet.
