Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli pay $500,000 to fake a USC crew recruit, twice
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, agreed with William "Rick" Singer in 2016 and again in 2017 to have their two daughters designated as USC crew-team recruits, despite neither daughter having rowed competitively, paying $500,000 combined, routed partly as payments to a USC athletics account and partly as "donations" to Singer's sham charity. Both pleaded guilty in May 2020. A federal judge sentenced Loughlin to two months in prison and Giannulli to five months on August 21, 2020, making them the 21st and 22nd parents sentenced in the wider case.
- Year
- 2020
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $500,000
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- College admissions bribery scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-21
The facts, as recorded
- In 2016, the couple agreed to have Singer get their older daughter into USC as a purported crew recruit, even though she had never rowed; Singer said he would 'create a coxswain profile,' and Giannulli sent a photo of her on a rowing machine for the fake profile.
- Giannulli paid $250,000 for the older daughter's admission: $50,000 to an account controlled by a USC athletics administrator and $200,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation, Singer's sham charity.
- In 2017, the couple repeated the arrangement for their younger daughter, who also had never rowed; Singer said he would 'build an athletic profile for USC' and falsely listed her as a coxswain, and in November 2017 sent a 'likely letter' saying she had been provisionally admitted.
- Giannulli paid another $250,000 for the younger daughter: $50,000 to the USC athletics account and $200,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation, bringing the couple's total payments to $500,000.
- Loughlin pleaded guilty in May 2020 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud; Giannulli pleaded guilty to that count plus one count of honest services wire and mail fraud.
- US District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton sentenced Loughlin on August 21, 2020 to two months in prison, two years of supervised release, 100 hours of community service and a $150,000 fine.
- Gorton sentenced Giannulli the same day to five months in prison, two years of supervised release, 250 hours of community service and a $250,000 fine.
- In emails, Loughlin reacted to the admission news with 'This is wonderful news!'; Giannulli wrote to his financial advisor, 'Good news my daughter [ ] is in [U]SC . . . bad [news] is I had to work the system,' and separately asked, 'Can't I write this off?'
- Loughlin and Giannulli were the 21st and 22nd parents sentenced in the broader Varsity Blues case.
Why this case matters
Of the roughly 50 parents charged in the wider scheme, Loughlin and Giannulli became its most visible faces, and their case shows the athletic-recruiting version of the fraud in detail: two different daughters, two fabricated rowing profiles, over two separate years, with the payments split between a university athletics account and Singer’s sham charity.
Building a rowing résumé for a child who had never rowed
Neither daughter had competed in crew. Singer’s team built a coxswain profile for each of them anyway, in the older daughter’s case illustrated with a photo Giannulli sent of her sitting on a rowing machine. The younger daughter was listed as a coxswain and received a “likely letter” of provisional admission in November 2017, months before any formal decision would ordinarily go out.
Where the $500,000 actually went
Each daughter’s admission cost the couple $250,000, split the same way both times: $50,000 paid directly into an account controlled by a USC athletics administrator, and $200,000 routed to the Key Worldwide Foundation, Singer’s nonprofit, giving the larger share of the bribe the paper trail of a charitable donation.
What their own words show
The couple’s emails, quoted in the government’s own sentencing filings, show they understood what the payments were buying. Giannulli referred to having “to work the system” to get his daughter in, and separately asked whether the payment could be written off on his taxes, a question that answers itself given the IRS only allows a deduction when the donor receives nothing of substantial value in return.
The caveat
Both defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced; these are the facts of a concluded federal case, not allegations. The emails quoted above come from the government’s own account of the case, as reported in the sentencing release cited.
Sources
- California couple's college admissions case sentenced to prison. US Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts (via oversight.gov). Accessed 2026-10-21. Supports: The sentences, fines, community service, both guilty pleas, the fabricated coxswain profiles for both daughters, the $500,000 total payment broken out by recipient and year, and the email quotes from Loughlin and Giannulli.