A little over a month ago, on March 12, 2019, United States federal prosecutors announced that they had successfully served indictments to a minimum of 50 Americans who were found guilty of paying money to the operation’s ringleader, William Rick Singer, in order to help their students have a better chance at getting into good colleges.
Ultimately, the people who have been implicated in the scandal either bribed the administrators of college entrance exams like the SAT or ACT to make sure their children did as well as the parents wanted them to; provided bribes to universities’ administrators and coaches so that they’d collude with one another to allow their children to be recruited as if they were top-tier athletes, a strategy that always granted them admission; or utilized charities to transport parents’ money that would then be given to William Rick Singer, universities, and sometimes other recipients.
The people accused of these crimes recently went to court. Just a few days ago, Felicity Huffman, a fixture on the long-running ABC show Desperate Housewives and an actress on movies such as Reversal of Fortune, Magnolia, Georgia Rule, Cake, Phoebe in Wonderland, and Rudderless, pled guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Lori Loughlin, who you may know from the popular ABC television show Full House, its sequel Fuller House, or in other shows like The Edge of Night and 90210, decided to plead not guilty to her charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.
Although pleading guilty to crimes that you’ve been accused of is not usually a good idea considering that the court you’re facing can throw the proverbial book at you, leaving you with absolutely zero repercussion against the court. However, pleading guilty – this time, at least – proved to pay off for Huffman.
Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who was also charged with the same two charges as his wife, are each facing 20 years for each of their charges. It’s doubtful they actually get 40 years in prison, though it’s scary to think about.
Huffman is facing anywhere between four and 10 months in prison, which isn’t too bad of a sentence. She is slated to appear in court for sentencing on May 21.
