Lori Loughlin Indicted on New Charge in College Admissions Scandal

Lori Loughlin and her husband have been indicted on new charges, in what the Department of Justice has called the biggest college admissions scandal it has ever prosecuted.

Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among 11 parents indicted in the new charges on Tuesday.

The Full House star’s new charge alleges that she and the others bribed University of California (USC) employees to get their kids into college.

U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling told the Associated Press in a statement that he plans to hold the defendants “fully accountable for corrupting the college admissions process through cheating, bribery and fraud.”

Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty to all charges alleging that they conspired to get their two daughters into the USC outside of the official application process. Prosecutors claim that among bribery tactics, the parents worked with a USC official to have their daughters admitted as crew recruits, though they do not row crew.

It’s the third indictment against Loughlin and Giannulli. The first, conspiracy and fraud charges, announced in March, claimed that the parents worked with William “Rick” Singer, the owner of The Edge College & Career Network (also called The Key) — a college preparation business with an allegedly phony nonprofit arm — to facilitate a third-party test taker for the ACT and SAT exams.

Then, in April, all defendants who had pleaded not guilty in the scandal were charged with a second indictment of money laundering.

While Loughlin and her husband pleaded not guilty, Felicity Huffman, the other high-profile defendant in a case that charged 50 people, pleaded guilty in the spring to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison, one year of supervised probation, 250 hours of community service and a fine of $30,000. She began her prison sentence on Oct. 15.

On Monday, a husband and wife from California pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud, allegedly pretending their daughter was an athlete in order to gain acceptance at Georgetown University.

Loughlin’s next turn in court comes on Jan. 17, 2020, at 11 a.m., for a status conference that she is not required to attend, according to the Department of Justice.