Mossimo Giannulli Follows Wife Lori Loughlin To Prison

LOS ANGELES, CA — Designer Mossimo Giannulli began his prison sentence today weeks after his famous wife, actress Lori Loughlin went to the clink for the same crime of bribing their daughters' ways into USC as crew team recruits, even though neither girl played the sport.

It's the latest chapter in the college admissions scandal that roiled elite universities and sent rich and famous parents to prison. Giannulli and Loughlin were among the most high profile holdouts in the case, which entangled dozens of parents. The pair spent months professing their innocence before reaching plea deals that landed them in federal prison.

On Thursday, Giannulli surrendered to a low-security federal correctional facility to begin his five-month term. Mossimo Giannulli was undergoing intake processing Thursday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, in Santa Barbara County. Lori Loughlin reported to the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, east of San Francisco, 20 days prior to her court- ordered Nov. 19 self-surrender date.

Loughlin and Giannulli pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to paying the admitted mastermind of the scheme, college admissions counselor Rick Singer, half a million dollars to get daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli accepted into USC. Their case was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy dubbed "Varsity Blues." More than 50 people have been charged in the probe. Of 38 parents charged, 26 have pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from the two weeks given to actress Felicity Huffman to a nine-month term imposed on Doug Hodge, former head of a Newport Beach-based bond management firm. Schools caught up in the scandal included USC, UCLA, Georgetown, Yale and Stanford.

For their part in the scheme, Giannulli and Loughlin sent fake crew recruiting profiles to Singer that included bogus credentials, medals and photos of one of their daughters on a rowing machine. Neither daughter is now enrolled at USC.

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that the couple "involved both their daughters in the fraud, directing them to pose in staged photographs for use in fake athletic profiles and instructing one daughter how to conceal the scheme from her high school counselor."

According to the memo, evidence shows that Giannulli, a 57-year-old fashion designer, was the more active participant.

Loughlin, 56, was sentenced in August along with her husband, who was handed a five-month term. The "Full House" star was also ordered to pay a $150,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Along with his prison term, Giannulli was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service. He was also ordered to self-surrender on Nov. 19.

Loughlin told the court that she had "made an awful decision. I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process."

After a year of insisting on their innocence, the actress pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while her husband pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.

Singer pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government's investigation. He is awaiting sentencing, expected sometime next year.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.