From Full House to the big house? Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, may be facing years or even decades of prison time for their alleged money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in the nationwide college admissions scandal.
Loughlin, 54, and Giannulli, 55, are accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughters — Bella, 20, and Olivia, 19 — admitted into the University of Southern California through falsified designations as crew recruits, according to court documents.
After they were indicted in March, the couple pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges. They rejected a plea deal in the case just before they were hit with the money laundering conspiracy charges, according to sources. “Her attorney told her not to take the deal,” one source revealed to Us Weekly earlier this month.
“I don’t know what she was thinking,” Los Angeles-based lawyer Neama Rahmani told Us at the time. “The feds have an overwhelming amount of evidence against her, including emails, phone calls and financial documents.”
In the wake of the scandal, also referred to as Operation Varsity Blues, Loughlin was fired from her TV roles on Hallmark Media — including her starring part on the drama When Calls the Heart — and she’s reportedly not expected to appear in the final season of the Netflix sitcom Fuller House.
All the while, tensions between Loughlin and Giannulli, her husband of 21 years, have run high. “Lori is constantly arguing with Mossimo because she is beginning to grasp that they are in very serious jeopardy,” a source explained.
“Everyone feels bad for her,” an insider told Us of the Full House alum. “They think the situation was something concocted by her husband. Her friends don’t like him.”
While the case plays out in court, scroll down to read what we know about Loughlin and Giannulli’s potential prison sentences.
