Actress Lori Loughlin has been sentenced to two months in prison after she admitted she paid money to get her daughters into top colleges, The Daily Beast reports.
Best known for her role as Aunt Becky on Full House, the 54-year-old actress was given the maximum sentence that her plea deal allowed. Her sentencing came just hours after her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, was sentenced to five months in prison for his participation in the admission bribes. She will have to pay a $150,000 fine, and perform 100 hours of community service, while Giannulli will pay a $250,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service.
Loughlin said during Friday's hearing that she had made an "awful decision," and that she was "sorry." U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said he believes that she showed remorse for her actions, which she reportedly nodded in response to. "I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process," she said during the hearing. "I thought I was acting out of love for my children, but in reality it only undermined my daughter's abilities and accomplishments."
Loughlin and her husband were both accused of sending $500,000 to Rick Singer and the Key Worldwide Foundation in order to get their daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Rose Giannulli into the University of Southern California's crew team. Neither of them had participated in the sport prior to the bribery scandal.
Loughlin and Giannulli are among a list of almost 30 parents who pled guilty to paying bribes to get their children into top schools in the country. The total number of parents who were charged reaches almost 50, with Felicity Huffman among those who participated. Both Loughlin and her husband were charged in 2019 with one count each of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and they also faced charges related to money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. They originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but they eventually decided to take a plea deal and subsequently confessed and pleaded guilty to the charges.
