Lori Loughlin will spend two months in prison and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli will spend five months in prison for their role in the college bribery scandal.
The Full House actress appeared before Judge Nathaniel Gorton on Zoom on Friday afternoon, hours after her husband’s hearing.
She wore a white shirt and nodded intently while listening to the judge.
The pair do not have to serve their sentences immediately. Giannulli has been told he has to self-surrender at an as-yet undetermined facility within 90 days.
Lori has not yet been given a date to surrender.
At his hearing, Giannulli’s attorney asked the judge to recommend that he serve his time at Lompoc Camp, just north of Santa Barbara. The Bureau of Prisons will ultimately decide where he will be sent.
An artists sketch of Mossimo Giannulli during his Zoom sentencing hearing on Friday morning
Lori Loughlin’s husband, Mossimo Giannilli, will be sentenced to five months in prison for his role in the college bribery scandal
Giannulli addressed the virtual courtroom briefly, saying: ‘I deeply regret the harm that my actions have caused my daughters, my wife and others.
‘I take full responsibility for my conduct. I am ready to accept the consequences and move forward with the lessons I’ve learned from this experience.’
His attorney gave a glowing history of his life, calling him ‘Moss’ and describing how hard he’d worked to ascend in the fashion industry. They also complained that his daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella, had been bullied on social media and in person for their parents’ crimes.
Judge Gorton was unsympathetic to the family’s plight.
He told Giannulli there was ‘no excuse’ for his crimes and that he wasn’t ‘stealing bread for his family’ but was ‘living the good life in California’.
He said there were people who experienced harsh disadvantages in life who did not resort to what he and his wife did and that they thought they could buy their way through life.
‘That’s not the way it works in this country, as you are about to find out,’ Judge Gorton said.
When Mr. Singer made the recommendation of the side door, Moss ignored alarm doors, red flags and he went ahead and assisted by taking pictures,’
Giannulli’s attorney Sean Berkowitz
The famous pair paid $500,000 to get their daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella into USC by pretending they were champion coxswains.
They were among dozens of well-heeled parents who paid for their kids’ entry.
Felicity Huffman also took part in the scheme, that was masterminded by Rick Singer. She was sentenced to two weeks in prison.
During Friday’s hearing, Giannulli’s attorney described him as a ‘fiercely devoted’ father who’d always put his kids – both the girls with Lori and his son from a previous relationship – first.
He said he had no idea Rick Singer was a criminal when he met him, and that neither he nor his wife ever saw the finished college applications that the girls submitted.
‘Mr Giannulli did not attend or graduate from college. He and his wife needed assistance in order to help navigate the process,’ Giannulli’s lawyer, Sean Berkowtiz, said.
Lori with the couple’s daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella. She will be sentenced this afternoon
Olivia Jade posing on a rowing machine, pretending to be a crew star, for her fake athlete application
The couple’s other daughter, Isabella, submitted a similar fake photo
‘[He] recommended Rick Singer to them as a renowned college counselor who could help guide them through the process. At the time, he was not presented as a felon or a huckster or a fraud,’ Berkowitz went on.
Berkowitz then referred to the scheme whereby they pretended the girls were star athletes to get them in as sporting recruits as a ‘side door’.
‘It wasn’t until April 2016 that Mr. Singer first suggested the side door that you’ve heard about. Never did Mr Singer suggest to Moss or his family that they cheat on their tests and both achieved strong grades and test scores.
‘Having said that, when Mr. Singer made the recommendation of the side door, Moss ignored alarm doors, red flags and he went ahead and assisted by taking pictures,’ Berkowitz said.
He went on that he ‘deeply regrets bringing his wife into the scheme’ and complained that the girls have been bullied more than any of the other children involved.
‘The family has been the face of the crisis in a way disproportionate to their overall role. You’ll hear more about that this afternoon,’ he said.
‘This is a good man who made terrible mistakes,’ he concluded.