Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, along with 14 other parents, were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Boston on money laundering charges, as part of the nationwide college admissions cheating case.
Loughlin and Giannulli, who were arrested last month on a criminal complaint, are charged with conspiring with William “Rick” Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., and others to bribe SAT and ACT exam administrators to allow a test taker to secretly take college entrance exams in place of students, or to correct the students’ answers after they had taken the exam. They are also charged with bribing university athletic coaches and administrators to facilitate the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits.
The second superseding indictment also charges the two with conspiring to launder the bribes and other payments in furtherance of the fraud by funneling them through Singer’s purported charity and his for-profit corporation, as well as by transferring money into the United States, from outside the United States, for the purpose of promoting the fraud scheme.
Loughlin and Giannulli are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the charging documents filed last month, Loughlin and Giannulli “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC.”
Loughlin was fired by Hallmark, where she starred on “When Calls the Heart” and many of the network’s original films, and is said to be out of the final season of Netflix’s “Fuller House,” though the streamer has yet to say anything official on the matter.
Netflix again had no comment for TheWrap on Tuesday.
The indictment against the 16 parents comes one day after fellow actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to the mail fraud charge against her. Twelve other parents also pleaded guilty to the charges against them on Monday.
According to an affidavit, Huffman and her spouse — “Shameless” star William H. Macy, who was not identified by his name or charged in the affidavit — made a charitable donation of $15,000 “to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her oldest daughter.”