Just one day after news about a massive college admissions cheating exam scheme broke, Lori Loughlin surrendered to the FBI ahead of a court hearing Wednesday. Loughlin, one of 50 people indicted in the bribery scam, will reportedly be booked at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a spokesperson for the FBI confirmed to Variety. She is expected to appear before a federal magistrate Wednesday afternoon at U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, it was reported that Loughlin and other individuals have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, honest services mail fraud and more. An FBI affidavit reportedly detailed the scheme, which entailed wealthy parents paying anywhere between $200,000 and $6.5 million to get their children into elite universities such as Georgetown, UCLA, University of Southern California, Stanford and Yale. Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid bribes to help get her two daughters, Isabella Rose, 20, and Olivia Jade, 19, admitted to the University of Southern California.
“The Giannullis agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC,” the FBI affidavit claims.
While Giannulli was arrested Tuesday morning without incident, Loughlin was filming in Canada when the scandal broke. On Tuesday, Loughlin’s attorneys arranged with prosecutors to allow her to travel to Vancouver to work as a condition of her bond. Giannulli has since been released on $1 million bond.
As for the school that Loughlin and Giannulli’s daughters attend, the administration-at-large claims they were unaware of any inappropriate financial contributions and are cooperating with authorities.
“USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government’s investigation,” the university said in a statement on Tuesday. “We understand that the government believes that illegal activity was carried out by individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their actions from the university. USC is conduction an internal investigation.”
USC also revealed that two employees, athletic director Donna Heinel and legendary water polo coach Jovan Vavic, have already been fired.
Other celebrities facing federal charges in connection with the scheme are Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman and her husband, Shameless actor William H. Macy, as well as TPG Growth founder Bill McGlashan. Per Variety, nine coaches at the elite universities involved also colluded in the scheme, which even involved faking SAT and ACT scores to help the children of the wealthy accused get into the schools. We will continue to follow this story and report more news as it develops.
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