By Matthew Ormseth
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Lori Loughlin and 15 other parents implicated in the college admissions scandal have been indicted on charges of money laundering and fraud conspiracy, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The indictments came one day after 13 parents and one coach said they would plead guilty in the far-reaching scheme.
Although the indictments unsealed Tuesday did not preclude deals for the holdouts, the new charge of money laundering conspiracy could saddle them with heavier sentences than those parents who signed agreements earlier.
With one exception, all 33 parents charged in the scheme have either signed plea agreements or been indicted. Three parents already had been indicted, and prosecutors said Monday that Toby MacFarlane, a San Diego parent, likely would plead guilty in the case.
Of the 14 people who admitted their involvement Monday, 13 will plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit fraud. Prosecutors said they would recommend sentences ranging from a few months to a year and a half in prison for each individual.
While announcing her plea agreement, Felicity Huffman apologized to her daughter, saying she had “betrayed” her “in a misguided and profoundly wrong way.” Prosecutors said Huffman paid $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT score doctored; Huffman said the girl “knew absolutely nothing” about the scheme.
The people indicted Tuesday — which includes Loughlin; her husband, Mossimo Giannulli; financier Douglas Hodge; and Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs — now face two charges: fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the money laundering charge stemmed from payments the parents made to a charity run by William “Rick” Singer, the scheme’s admitted mastermind. Singer used the funds to bribe coaches, university officials and test proctors, but the parents disguised them as charitable contributions and wrote them off on their taxes, prosecutors allege.
A Palo Alto couple, Gregory and Amy Colburn, had been indicted by a federal grand jury last month after balking at an offer from prosecutors. The couple’s lawyers said the deal would have required them to plead guilty to a felony without seeing all the evidence against them.
That indictment was a shot across the bow for the other parents, said Rory Little, a University of California, Hastings law professor and former federal prosecutor.
Money laundering is an elastic charge that can be stretched to fit most crimes where money changes hands, Little said. In this case, he sees prosecutors wielding it for “plea pressure,” to induce parents to plead guilty and avoid the risk of incurring more prison time.
“There’s a side to this that’s kind of unseemly,” Little said. “They’re playing very, very aggressively here. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it’s aggressive.”
