College Admission Scam: Full House Actress Lori Loughlin Released From Prison

“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin was released from prison Monday after spending two months behind bars for paying half a million dollars in bribes for her two daughters to go to college.

Loughlin was released from the federal jail in Dublin, California, where she had been serving her sentence for her role in the college admissions bribery scheme, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said. Her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, is serving his five-month sentence in a prison in Lompoc near Santa Barbara, California.

Giannulli is scheduled to be released on April 17, says the Bureau of Prisons. Prosecutors said Giannulli deserved a harsher sentence because he was “the most active participant in the scheme.”

Loughlin and Giannulli were among the highest-profile defendants charged in the scheme, which revealed just how far some wealthy parents will go to get their children into elite universities. Authorities said parents funneled bribes through a bogus charity run by an admissions consultant to get their children into top schools with fake athletic credentials or tampered test scores.

The famous couple admitted in May to paying $ 500,000 for their two daughters to enter the University of Southern California as crew recruits, though neither girl was a T-shirt. His guilty plea was a shocking change for the couple, whose attorneys had insisted for a year that they were innocent and accused investigators of fabricating evidence against them.

The only public comments Loughlin or Giannulli made on the case since their arrest last year came at sentencing hearings in August. Loughlin, who gained fame for her role as healthy Aunt Becky on the sitcom “Full House,” told the judge that her actions “helped exacerbate existing inequalities in society” and vowed to do whatever she could. in your power to use your expertise as a “catalyst for good.”

His youngest daughter, social media influencer Olivia Jade, made her first public comments about the scandal this month on the series “Red Table Talk.” Olivia Jade said she neither wants nor deserves compassion.

“We screwed up. I just want a second chance to say, ‘I admit I screwed up.

Initially, Loughlin and Giannulli were supposed to appear in prison on November 19, but prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Loughlin could begin his sentence on October 30. Loughlin also agreed that he would not seek early release for reasons related to the coronavirus, prosecutors said. .

Of the nearly 60 parents, coaches and other defendants in the case, about a dozen are still fighting the allegations. The sentences for the parents who have intervened so far in the case range from a couple of weeks to nine months. Actress Felicity Huffman served nearly two weeks in prison last year for paying an admissions consultant $ 15,000 to have a supervisor correct her daughter’s SAT responses.