The “Full House” actress was convicted, along with her husband, of paying bribes to bring their two daughters to the University of Southern California.
BOSTON – Authorities say “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin has reported to a California federal prison to serve her two-month sentence for her role in the college admissions bribery scandal.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston announced Friday that Loughlin was being processed in federal prison in Dublin, California.
“The parties recently agreed that the defendant can report to prison on October 30, 2020 instead of November 19, 2020. The defendant has also agreed that she will not seek early release from prison for COVID-related reasons during her two-month sentence, “the prosecutor said in a statement.
According to the Bureau of Prisons’ coronavirus protocols, Loughlin will be screened for COVID-19 and quarantined for 14 days.
The low-security prison in Northern California has 874 inmates and had two positive cases of coronavirus among inmates as of Friday morning, federal statistics show.
In August, Loughlin was sentenced to two months and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli to five months for paying half a million dollars in bribes to bring her two daughters to the University of Southern California as rowing recruits.
Prosecutors said Giannulli did not report to Loughlin in jail on Friday.
Plea agreements with the celebrity couple called for Loughlin to pay a $ 150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service and Giannulli to pay a $ 250,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.
The famous couple’s conviction came three months after they reversed course and admitted participating in the college admissions scam program that exposed the length of time some wealthy parents will take their children to elite universities.
You belong to nearly 30 prominent parents who plead guilty in what the federal prosecutor calls “Operation Varsity Blues”. Huge bribes have been exposed for taking undeserved children to college with rigged test scores or falsified athletic qualifications.
Loughlin and Giannulli had insisted for more than a year that they believed their payments were “legitimate donations” and accused prosecutors of hiding important evidence that could prove the couple’s innocence because it would undermine their case.
The case shook the clear image of Loughlin, who became famous for her role as healthy Aunt Becky in the sitcom “Full House” from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s and later became Queen of the Hallmark Canal with her vacation films and the series When Calls the Heart “.
Prosecutors said Giannulli deserved a tougher sentence for being “the more active participant in the program” while Loughlin “took on a less active role but was nonetheless fully complicit”.
The couple raised money through a bogus charity run by Rick Singer – the admissions advisor at the center of the program – to bring their two daughters into the USC as recruits for the crew, even though neither were rowers, authorities said With. Singer, who also pleaded guilty, was to testify against them after they went to court.
Investigators had recorded phone calls and emails showing that the couple had worked with Singer to bring their daughters to the USC using fake sports profiles depicting them as star rowers. In an email, Singer told Loughlin and Giannulli he needed a picture of their older daughter on a rowing machine in workout clothes “like a real athlete”.
Prosecutors said the couple allowed the girls to “engage in crimes” and instructed them to pose for photos on rowing machines and warn their younger daughter not to say too much to her school counselor to avoid getting caught .
Among the other high profile parents sent to jail for participating in the fraud is actress Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives. She was behind bars in the same California jail for nearly two weeks late last year after admitting she paid $ 15,000 to have someone correct her daughter’s entrance exam answers.
Balsamo reported from Washington.
