Update, March 16, 2021, 10:48 a.m. ET: Two months after she was released from prison, Lori Loughlin was seen doing community service in Los Angeles in early March, according to People. Photos from Page Six appear to show Lori working with Project Angel Food to hand out meals.
Apart from her two-month prison sentence, Lori was ordered to pay a fine of $150,000 and complete 100 hours of community service.
Update, December 28, 2020, 4:09 p.m. ET: On Monday morning, Lori Loughlin was released from a Dublin, California prison after serving nearly two months for her role in the college admissions scandal. Her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, began his five-month sentence at a federal prison in Lompoc, California on November 19. According to court records obtained by People, Lori has already paid the fine of $150,000 and still needs to complete her community service hours.
Update, October 30, 2020, 2:04 p.m. ET: Lori Loughlin reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California on Friday to begin her two-month sentence for her role in the college admissions scandal. Lori is serving at the same federal prison where Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman served her 11 days last October.
According to NBC News, the Full House star was early, given that the judge who sentenced her ordered her to report to prison on November 19. Lori has also been ordered to pay a fine of $150,000 and complete 100 hours of community service once she is released.
Lori's husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was sentenced to five months, 250 hours of community service, and a fine of $250,000.
Update, August 21, 2020, 3 p.m. ET: Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have both been sentenced for their roles in the massive nationwide college admission scandal. According to the Associated Press, Mossimo will serve five months in prison, while Lori will serve two months for paying half a million dollars in bribes to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California.
It's reported Lori held back tears while addressing the judge and apologizing,
“I made an awful decision. I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process and in doing so I ignored my intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass,” she said, according to the AP. “I have great faith in God and I believe in redemption and I will do everything in my power to redeem myself and use this experience as a catalyst to do good.”
Mossimo will also pay a $250,000 fine, while Lori will pay $150,000. They both will also performed community service.
It is unclear when they will begin their sentencing.
Update, July 14, 2020, 12 p.m. ET:
Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are asking a federal judge to cut their bail in the college admissions scandal. Instead of $1 million, they want it set at $100,000, arguing that they will not flee before their sentencing.
"It is not necessary under the Bail Reform Act, which requires imposition of 'the least restrictive further condition or combination of conditions' necessary to 'reasonably assure the appearance of the person' and provide for the safety of the community," the motion states, according to USA Today. "There is no indication that Defendants will flee rather than face sentencing."
Lori and Mossimo pleaded guilty to charges filed in the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal this spring. Specifically, the pair decided to plead guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud (prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges of money laundering and federal programs bribery that were added after the case was filed).
Under the proposed plea agreement, Lori would have to serve two months in prison and pay a $150,000 fine, along with two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Mossimo would serve five months and pay a $250,000 fine, with two years of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.
This, of course, is subject to the court's approval. They are due in court on August 21 for sentencing.
Original, July 20, 2019 (updated multiple times to include new information):
It's been several months since Lori, Mossimo, and 49 others were charged in the massive nationwide college admissions cheating scandal.
Back in March 2019, prosecutors claimed Lori and her husband paid $500,000 in bribes to scammer William "Rick" Singer to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose, recruited to the University of Southern California crew team so that they could get into the college. Both Olivia and Bella have since left U.S.C., according to reports.
In response to the charges, Lori and Mossimo pleaded not guilty and rejected a plea deal, because it included jail time. Shortly after, they were also given additional charges of money laundering and conspiracy, which, if convicted, could mean up to 40 years behind bars for the couple.
Then, in October, Lori and Mossimo were slapped with an additional bribery claim from the office of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. The new charge could potentially add another decade onto their prison sentence if the couple is found guilty, according to Deadline.
A grand jury in Boston alleged that the couple and nine other parents committed federal program bribery by "bribing the employees of U.S.C. to facilitate their children's admission."
“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,” the release stated.
The charges were applied only to parents who had not opted to plead guilty to the initial indictment, per ABC News. In November, the couple decided to challenge the expanded charges, meaning lawyers for Lori and Mossimo entered not guilty pleas on their behalf, according to AP News.
Lori and Mossimo's defense attorneys have continued to argue that the couple believed the money they were giving William was going to legitimate donations to the university, not outright bribery.
A month later, lawyers representing the couple claimed that federal prosecutors were concealing evidence related to the scandal, NBC News reported. Specifically, a December filing alleged that prosecutors refused to turn over exculpatory evidence that supposedly shows that Lori and Mossimo were giving their payments to William and the U.S.C. athletic department to be used for "legitimate, university-approved purposes — or to other legitimate charitable causes." The U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts declined to speak to the outlet on the matter.
In mid-February, Lori and Mossimo's attorney Sean Berkowitz tried to get their trial date pushed back to February 2021 (though federal prosecutors want it to begin in October of this year). The lawyer argued that they would not be ready to go to trial until next year because of substantial evidence and the "general complexity of the case," according to documents obtained by USA Today. Of course, the judge will be the one who ultimately decides when the trial will begin.
But shortly after, the couple's legal team filed a motion to postpone setting a trial date altogether, per CNN. The defense attorneys stated that "the government was trying to benefit from withholding information" while working to "force trial as quickly as it can." The information in question included iPhone notes that William recorded in October 2018 during the "discovery process." Lori and Mossimo's lawyers argued that the government should have notified them about the notes.
In April, prosecutors released photos that allegedly showed Olivia and Bella pretending to be rowers to help secure their admission into U.S.C. In the pictures, Lori and Mossimo's daughters are dressed in workout clothes on an ERG machine — neither Olivia nor Bella had participated in rowing previously. The court documents filed by the FBI also included email correspondence between Mossimo and William in which they discuss staging the photos to sell the lie.
Most recently, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton, who is presiding over Lori and Mossimo's case, said he was disturbed by allegations that the couple's attorneys had made against prosecutors. Specifically, the pair's legal team asked the judge to dismiss the case altogether, citing notes where William said investigators instructed him to "bend the truth" and "tell a fib" in order to "retrieve responses that are not accurate," according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
The attorneys' documents further claim that agents used this tactic because other evidence showed that the defendants "believed their payments were legitimate donations." The judge responded by saying the allegations in William's notes were "serious and disturbing" and has asked prosecutors for an explanation. The judge, however, ultimately denied the couple's request to have their case dismissed.
While all of this has been going on, Lori and Mossimo have avoided making notable public appearances. They were last seen on August 27 while at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, for a hearing. Unlike Lori's previous visit to court, where she was seen signing autographs on the courthouse steps, Lori and Mossimo slipped in through the back door.
As People reported, Lori's life is looking much different nowadays. In the wake of the scandal, she was dropped from all her Hallmark Channel projects, including her role playing Abigail on When Calls the Heart. In addition, she is not coming back for the fifth and final season of Netflix's Fuller House.
When it comes to Lori's family life though, it seems like her daughters are both on their mom's side. For this past Mother's Day, both Olivia and Bella took to Instagram to share tributes to Lori.
"You are my best friend and have held my hand every day for 20 years making it look like motherhood is an easy job. You are one of a kind. I love you so so so much & cannot wait to give you all the love in the world today & forever," Olivia wrote.
Meanwhile, Bella shared her own kind words about her mom: "The strength mothers have is unparalleled, I think they might be the closest thing we have to superheroes. Happy Mother’s Day Mama, I love you. I’m so proud to be your daughter today & everyday."
Back in December, Olivia directly addressed the scandal on Youtube. In the clip, she explained that she's not "legally allowed to speak on anything going on right now."
"There's no point in me just talking for 10 minutes to the camera about how I wish I can say something when I really can't, so I'm going to leave it at that," Olivia explained, adding that she wants to move on with her life and "take smaller steps in the right direction."
