SALT LAKE CITY — Lori Loughlin may have missed a big opportunity to take a plea deal in the college admissions scandal, an expert exclusively told the Mercury News.
- Larry Levine, founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, told the Mercury News that Loughlin may be unaware of how federal cases work.
- “Lori Loughlin is living in a dream world. She doesn’t have a grasp on the reality about how these federal prosecutions work,” he told the Mercury News.
- “She had a grand opportunity to take the plea deal,” Levine said.
- Levine told the Mercury News that Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, missed a big opportunity that “will come into play at sentencing, you bet.”
Read more: Lori Loughlin missed ‘grand opportunity’ by not taking plea deal, expert says (Martha Ross, the Mercury News)
Context: Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli pleaded not guilty in the college admissions scandal.
The news: As I wrote last week for the Deseret News, a recent plea deal in the college admissions scandal may have offered a clue to the type of plea deal that Loughlin and her husband turned down.
As reported last month by USA Today, Toby MacFarlane pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, which are the same charges that Loughlin and Giannulli face. MacFarlane reportedly paid $450,000 in bribes so his children could attend the University of Southern California.
- “The MacFarlane plea is relevant to Loughlin and Giannulli because of the level of the offense — that is, how much money was allegedly involved. Plus, the details of the allegations were quite similar,” according to Law and Crime.
- “As the government noted in the MacFarlane case, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail could (very theoretically) have resulted in a maximum of 20 years in prison. The same was initially true for Loughlin and Giannulli. As MacFarlane’s deal shows, serious potential peril was reduced to 15 months through acceptance of responsibility,” according to Law and Crime.