A day after she was charged as part of a nationwide college admissions cheating scam case, actress Lori Loughlin surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday morning.
She will appear in a federal Los Angeles courtroom at 2 p.m. PT.
Loughlin, along with 46 others including actress Felicity Huffman, were charged with paying bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into top universities like Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC, according to charging documents. During a press conference in Boston on Tuesday, Andrew Lelling, U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts, said this was the “largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” totaling $25 million in bribes.
The official charges for both actresses were “conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.” If convicted, they could each face up to five years in prison. Huffman made her initial court appearance on Tuesday and was released on $250,000 bond. Her next court date is March 29 in Boston.
According to the charging documents, Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo 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.”
Giannulli had already made his court appearance and was released on $1 million bail, and will appear in a Boston courthouse on March 29.
According to a separate 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.” The document added that Huffman “later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her youngest daughter, before deciding not to do so.”
The suspects also include William McGlashan Jr., co-founder of STX and a director of the Hollywood agency CAA.
“McGlashan participated in both the college entrance exam cheating scheme and the college recruitment scheme, including by conspiring to bribe Donna Heinel, the senior athletic director at … USC, to facilitate his son’s admission to USC as a recruited athlete,” according to the affidavit.
Following his arrest, TPG, the private equity firm where McGlashan is a managing partner, placed him on indefinite administrative leave and named co-CEO Jim Coulter as interim managing partner.