Standing her ground? Lori Loughlin will plead not guilty to the bribery charges filed against her and husband Mossimo Giannulli, Us Weekly can confirm.
Us confirmed last month that the 55-year-old Full House alum and the 56-year-old designer were hit with additional charges in the nationwide college admissions scandal.
“The new charges in the third superseding indictment allege that 11 defendants – Gamal Abdelaziz, Diane Blake, Todd Blake, Mossimo Giannulli, Elisabeth Kimmell, Lori Loughlin, William McGlashan, Jr., Marci Palatella, John Wilson, Homayoun Zadeh, and Robert Zangrillo – conspired to commit federal program bribery by bribing employees of the University of Southern California (USC) to facilitate their children’s admission,” United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said in a press release on October 22. “In exchange for the bribes, employees of the university allegedly designated the defendants’ children as athletic recruits – with little or no regard for their athletic abilities – or as members of other favored admissions categories.”
Loughlin and Giannulli have been accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughters, Bella, 21, and Olivia Jade, 20, into the University of Southern California as crew recruits — even though the girls do not play the sport. The couple previously pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges.
An insider told Us last month that the actress is “absolutely terrified and extremely vulnerable” after the twosome were slapped with additional charges.
“The only hope is that she is acquitted or if she is convicted, the judge will realize the government has been completely overzealous and gives her a very light prison sentence,” the source told Us on October 23. “The prosecution added the additional charge because the government realized their case was weak. The charge could have been filed with the others back in the spring.”
The day before the bribery charges were filed, Us confirmed that Bella, an aspiring actress, and Olivia Jade, a YouTuber with nearly 2 million subscribers, are no longer enrolled at USC.
“Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Rose Giannulli are not currently enrolled,” the USC Registrar told Us in a statement on October 21. “We are unable to provide additional information because of student privacy laws.”
Fellow actress Felicity Huffman was also indicted in the case in March. The Desperate Housewives alum, who was accused of paying $15,000 to improve her 19-year-old daughter Sophia’s SAT scores, pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Huffman completed her 14-day prison sentence for the case last month. The 56-year-old actress, who also shares 17-year-old daughter Georgia with husband William H. Macy, must now complete 250 hours of community service, a year of supervised release and pay a $30,000 fine.
