US actress Lori Loughlin in Boston court for hearing on college admissions scandal
- Prosecutors have accused the actress and her husband of arranging to pay bribes to get two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California
Actress Lori Loughlin appeared in Boston federal court on Tuesday for a hearing on whether the lawyers defending her against charges she took part in a large college admissions scam have a conflict and must be disqualified.
Federal prosecutors have accused the Full House star and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli of arranging to pay bribes to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as purported crew recruits.
They are among 51 people charged since March with taking part in a vast scheme in which wealthy parents conspired to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure admission fortheir children to top universities, including USC.
Prosecutors claim they did so with the help of William “Rick” Singer, a California college admissions consultant who has pleaded guilty to facilitating cheating on college admissions tests and helping to bribe university sports coaches to present clients’ children as fake athletic recruits.
Loughlin and Giannulli are both represented by the law firm Latham & Watkins, which until recently also represented USC on other matters. Prosecutors contend the firm’s representation of the school is a conflict that warrants disqualification.
The law firm, one of the biggest in the United States, disputes that its recent work for USC in an unrelated real estate case poses any conflict and says it no longer represents the school.