"Full House" star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty Friday to paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as part of a college admissions bribery scheme, but a judge has not decided whether he'll accept their plea deals with prosecutors.
Under the proposed deals, Loughlin, 55, hopes to spend two months in prison and Giannulli, 56, is seeking to serve five months. But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said Friday at the couple's video hearing that he will decide whether to accept or reject the plea deals after further consideration of the presentencing report.
The famous couple, who appeared on separate video screens, both sitting with a lawyer, made no comments during the hearing other than to answer the judge's questions.
On Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, both of Los Angeles, Calif., will plead guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton at a later date.
Loughlin will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.
Loughlin has agreed to a sentence of two months in prison, a $150,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. Giannulli has agreed to a sentence of five months in prison, a $250,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service.
Loughlin and Giannulli are the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the college admissions case.
Loughlin and Giannulli are among more than 50 people, including 34 parents, to be charged last year with participating in the large-scale admissions scheme. Prosecutors said the parents involved paid admissions consultant William "Rick" Singer to bribe college coaches and rig test scores to get their children into elite universities.
Loughlin and Giannulli were scheduled to go to trial in October on charges that they paid $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into the University of Southern California as crew team recruits, even though neither of them played the sport.
The famous couple had insisted they were innocent and said they believed their payments were legitimate donations. Earlier this month, the judge rejected their bid to dismiss the case over allegations of misconduct by FBI agents investigating the scam.
An attorney for the couple declined to comment.
The scandal also led to the arrest of “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman, 56, who pleaded in May to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Prosecutors said she paid Singer $15,000 to rig her daughter's SAT score.
Huffman was released from prison late last year after serving 11 days of her 14-day sentence.
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