Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband were among 16 parents involved in the college admissions cheating scam who were indicted by a federal grand jury, which added a money laundering charge to their legal woes, federal authorities announced Tuesday.
The parents, including Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, "were charged today in Boston in a second superseding indictment with conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to use bribery to cheat on college entrance exams and to facilitate their children’s admission to selective colleges and universities as purported athletic recruits," the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston announced.
Loughlin and Giannulli, who were among a total of nearly three-dozen parents arrested last month on mail-fraud charges in a criminal complaint, are accused of conspiring with scam mastermid William “Rick” Singer, 58, of Newport Beach, Calif., and others, to bribe college officials and coaches, and to artificially inflate entrance exam scores, in order to get their children admitted to elite colleges and universities.
Prosecutors said the second superseding indictment also charges the defendants with conspiring to launder bribes and other payments in connection with 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 country, for the purpose of promoting the fraud scheme.
Under the usual procedures, the next step for these 16 parents will be to appear at an arraignment where they will enter a plea or guilty or not guilty. Then a trial date would be set by the court.
But even before they are arraigned, the parents could still agree to plead guilty under a plea agreement worked out with prosecutors, as 13 parents did Monday, including actress Felicity Huffman.
The announcement of those plea agreements heightened the pressure on Loughlin and those parents who have not done the same. A federal grand jury indictment, with an additional federal charge added to the tally, further bumps up the pressure.
The charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud provides for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, plus hefty fines. The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering provides for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and heftier fines.
Federal prosecutors in Boston were closed-mouthed about the indictments; grand jury proceedings are secret and prosecutors are barred from discussing them.
However, the process prosecutors are following is routine: If someone is arrested and charged with a crime in a criminal complaint, the government then has 30 days to indict.
The defendants in the college admissions case, dubbed Varsity Blues by the U.S. Attorney's Office, totaled 50, including 33 parents. Most were arrested in their homes on March 12, appeared at federal courthouses in their home cities and were released on bail. They began making their first appearances in federal court in Boston last week.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/04/09/lori-loughlin-indicted-grand-jury-money-laundering-charge-added/3412874002/
2019-04-09 17:53:00Z
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