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As Lori Loughlin’s case moves towards a trial, the Hollywood actress and her attorneys may hope to convince a jury and the public that she was simply a well-meaning, but naive mother who got caught up in a con man’s scheme to get her under-qualified daughters admitted to the University of Southern California.
But here’s what we know so far:
A series of emails and recorded phone conversations between April 2016 and October 2018 offer “strong circumstantial evidence,” showing that Loughln and her husband Mossimo Giannulli had “criminal intent” and knew they were engaging in fraud and bribery, a legal expert says.
In conversations with Willam “Rick” Singer, the couple discussed fraudulently passing off their daughters Isabella and Olivia Jade as crew team recruits, according to the indictment. To further the scheme, Loughlin and Giannulli had their daughters pose for photos on indoor rowing machines.
At another point, GIannulli sent a note to his accountant, directing the employee to send $200,000 to Singer’s nonprofit. Singer allegedly set up the nonprofit to hide the bribes he received from wealthy parents, who were looking for ways to facilitate their children’s admission to top U.S. schools.
After Isabella received her formal acceptance letter to USC in April 2017, Giannulli was happy to pay Singer the $200,000, according to the indictment. But to his accountant, he bemoaned the lengths he had to go to secure her admission.
“Good news my daughter … is in (USC) … bad is that I had to work the system,” Gianulli wrote.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said Giannulli’s statement is among the most damaging things said or done by Loughlin or Giannulli during their two-year association with Singer, the admitted mastermind in the nationwide college admissions scandal. Singer pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and other conspiracies in March.
But Rahmani cites a number of other specific acts and statements that provide “strong circumstantial evidence” against the former “Full House” star and her fashion designer husband. Loughlin and Giannulli are charged with paying Singer and two alleged accomplices at USC a total of $500,000 to ease Isabella and Olivia Jade’s admission to the prestigious Los Angeles university.
“When a prosecutor has to prove intent in a criminal case, they rarely have direct evidence,” said Rahmani, who tried fraud and drug cases in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego.
“Criminal defendants rarely say, ‘I know I am committing a fraudulent act,’” added Rahmani, who is in private practice in Los Angeles with West Coast Trial Lawyers. “Instead, the government must rely on circumstantial evidence that the defendant knew about the fraudulent conduct.”
Rahmani outlined other strong evidence in the U.S. government’s case against the couple. In addition to the payments Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, made to Singer and to USC officials, the evidence includes efforts by the couple to stop a counselor at Olivia Jade’s high school from raising concerns that she falsely represented herself as a crew team athlete on her USC application.
Rahmani said there also is sufficient evidence that Isabella, 21, and Olivia Jade, 20, “knew of the fraudulent conspiracy, agreed to participate in it, and took overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.” Isabella and Olivia Jade, an aspiring social media influencer, are no longer enrolled at USC. They also have not been charged in the case, but that could change, Rahmani said.
“By pushing their case to trial, Loughlin and Giannulli are also exposing their children to criminal liability,” said Rahmani,
It became clear this week that federal prosecutors continue to aggressively pursue a case against the Bel Air couple. After they and nine other wealthy parents refused to take plea deals, prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment that charges these defendants with new counts of bribery, in addition to the fraud and money laundering charges they already faced.
The bribery charges add another 10 years to the potential maximum 40-year prison sentences facing Loughlin and Giannulli.
Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty, and their attorneys have stated in court filings: “Lori Loughlin and Mossimmo Giannulli are innocent of the charges brought against them and are eager to clear their names.”
After Loughlin and Giannulli were hit this week with the bribery charges, the actress reportedly grew “terrified” that she might actually get convicted and do prison time. But at the same time, she felt “anger,” a source close to Loughlin told People. That anger, the source explained, was fueled by a sense that she has become a “scapegoat.”
“How do you go up against the federal government, when the government has decided to make an example out of you?” the source added to People. “How can you possibly move forward from this?”
This sense of being unfairly targeted by prosecutors is in line with the couple’s potential defense strategy, which was revealed in court filings and by sources close to Loughlin, speaking to different news and entertainment outlets over the past six months.
The couple may argue that they didn’t know the were doing anything illegal when they made payments to Singer, or to former USC associate athletic director Donna Heinel and former soccer coach Laura Janke. Heinel and Janke allegedly helped Singer present Isabella and Olivia Jade as athletic recruits. Heinel has been charged with racketeering and other charges and Janke has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors.
“(Lori and her husband) claim they were under the impression they might be breaking rules, but not laws,” a source told Entertainment Tonight in April. “They feel they were manipulated by those involved and are planning that as part of their defense.”
According to a strategy revealed in court in June, the couple also may say that they believed that the money they paid to Singer, Heinel and Janke were legitimate donations to programs at the school.
But these arguments don’t hold up, said Rahmani.
“This circumstantial evidence is powerful and undercuts Loughlin and Giannulli’s argument that their payments to Singer and the USC (officials) were bonafide charitable contributions instead of a bribe to fraudulently get their daughters admitted,” Rahmani said.
“Parents who legitimately make donations to a university don’t take and send fake pictures, tell people they ‘worked the system,’ and lie about their children participating in crew,” added Rahmani.
A review of the indictment reveals some of the most damaging evidence against the couple, Rahmani said.
According to the indictment, Loughlin and Giannulli went along with Singer’s scheme after he told them in a July 2016 email that Isabella’s academic qualifications were at or just below the “low end” of USC’s admission standards.
“Thereafter, the Giannullis agreed with (Singer) to use bribes to facilitate her admission to USC as a recruited crew coxswain, even though she did not row competitively or otherwise participate in crew,” the indictment reads.
Rahmani said a particularly strong piece of circumstantial evidence comes from when Giannulli sent Singer, via an email copied to Loughlin, a photo of Isabella on an ergometer, or indoor rowing machine. Janke used the photo to create Isabella’s fake athletic profile, according to the indictment. Heinel in turn used the profile when she met with the USC subcommittee for athletic admissions in October 2016 and successfully argued for Isabella to be be admitted to the university, the indictment shows.
The couple repeated the process for Olivia Jade, according to the indictment. In July 2017, Singer emailed Loughlin and Giannulli, asking them about creating the fake athletic profile for her, which would say she rowed as a crew coxswain for a club team. He also asked them to send an “action picture.”
Several days later, Loughlin emailed back to say they were out of town but “Moss will get this done,” according to the indictment. About a week later, Giannulli copied Loughlin on an email he sent to Singer, which had the photo of Olivia Jade on an ergometer.
Other strong evidence comes from Loughlin and Giannulli raising concerns about a counselor at Olivia Jade’s private high school finding out that she was representing herself as a recruited athlete in USC application, Rahmani said.
“I don’t want to call any attention to (her) with our little friend at her (high school),” Loughlin wrote to Singer in a December 2017 email. The “little friend” apparently refers to the guidance counselor at Olivia Jade’s all-girls Catholic school.
“Can you tell us how to proceed,” Loughlin asked. Singer responded by saying that he would have one of his employees submit the application on Olivia Jade’s behalf.
But several months later, the counselor apparently found out and raised questions, with Singer telling investigators that the counselor knew that neither Isabella nor Olivia Jade had participated in crew, according to the indictment. Giannulli went to Olivia Jade’s high school to confront the counselor and try to make the counselor believe that his daughter participated in crew.
The counselor memorialized the confrontation by sending an email to Giannulli later that day, the indictment shows. In the email, the evidently chastened counselor assured Giannulli that USC had no intention of rescinding Olivia Jade’s admission offer.
“I also shared with (the USC senior assistant director of admission) that you had visited this morning and affirmed for me that (your younger daughter) is truly a coxswain,” the counselor wrote.
