Actress Lori Loughlin faces new charges in US college admissions scam
- Prosecutors pressing Full House star, her husband and nine others to admit guilt in scheme where wealthy parents used bribes to get children into elite schools
- Loughlin allegedly paid US$500,000 to get two daughters places at University of Southern California, but school says they are ‘not currently enrolled’ there
Full House actress Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, and nine other parents faced new federal charges on Tuesday as prosecutors pressured them to acknowledge their guilt in a scheme involving dozens of wealthy parents accused of bribing their children into elite universities or cheating on college entrance exams.
A grand jury in Boston indicted the parents on charges of trying to bribe officials at an organisation that receives at least US$10,000 in federal funding. In this case, they are accused of paying to get their children admitted to the University of Southern California.
The charge of conspiracy to commit federal programme bribery carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000.
A total of 35 wealthy and celebrity parents have been charged in the scheme that showed how far some will go to get their children into top universities like Stanford and Yale.
Some parents are accused of paying admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to falsely portray their children as star athletes and then bribe college sports officials to get them admitted as recruited athletes. Others are accused of paying Singer to help cheat on their children’s SAT and ACT exams.
