Court Releases Emails, Call Recording Logs Connected With College Admissions Cheating Scandal
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Prosecutors Wednesday released emails and call recording logs between Mossimo Giannulli, Lori Loughlin and Rick Singer, the mastermind of the college admissions cheating scandal, shedding new light on the alleged scheme.
The trove of correspondence also revealed how the University of Southern California was trying to court one of the daughters of Loghlin and Giannulli — even as prosecutors said the couple was plotting a sham resume to get her admitted as a fake rower on crew.
In an email with a redacted sender, the writer said in part:
"Hi Mossimo — Please let me know if I can be at all helpful in setting up a 1:1 opportunity for her, customized tour of campus for the family… I'd also be happy to flag her application…"
In response to the release of that email, the university said in a statement that the offer was neither special nor unique.
"Tours, classroom visits and meetings are routinely offered," the statement said. "The primary purpose of a flag is to be able to track the outcome of the admission review process…"
Also in the court documents was an email from Singer to Giannulli that said:
"Mossimo — Can you send me a 50k check to USC… Additionally the rest of the 200k will be paid to our foundation."
The prosecution also released an email forwarded to Giannulli with payment instructions to Donna Heinel, the Senior Women's Associate Athletic Director at USC, who was also charged in the admissions scandal.
Another revelation from the document release was that the children of Loughlin and Giannulli were flagged by their high school counselors who said they knew the two were not on the crew team.
Criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Alexandra Kazarian said the release of these exchanges complicates the case.
"The question is, is the government presenting this as a conspiracy where everyone was in on this together in order to defraud someone else," she said. "Or is the government presenting this as Mossimo and Lori trying to defraud USC? That's the question — and that's the question the government really hasn't answered yet."
The document release comes as attorneys for both the prosecution and Loghlin and Giannulli accuse one another of withholding evidence.
