After extended resistance (and likely lots of legal fees), Lori Loughlin and her husband agree to plead guilty in college admission scandal with fixed short prison sentence

As reported in this CNN piece, headlined "Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli agree to plead guilty in college admissions scam," perhaps the highest profile remaining defendants in the college admissions scandal have now finally capitulated the prosecutorial pressure and decided to plead guilty. Here are the details:

Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in connection to their role in the college admissions scam, the US Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts said.

Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, had been accused of paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake crew team recruits. They had pleaded not guilty for more than a year and moved to dismiss charges as recently as two weeks ago.

As part of the plea agreement, Loughlin will be sentenced to two months in prison and Giannulli will be sentenced to five months in prison, subject to the court's approval, according to authorities. In addition, Loughlin faces a $150,000 fine, two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service, and Giannulli faces a $250,000 fine, two years of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.

They are scheduled to plead guilty on Friday at 11:30 a.m., prosecutors said. Loughlin's publicist said she had no comment.

Loughlin will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, and Giannulli will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud. The actress, best known for her role as Aunt Becky on the sitcom "Full House," and her husband had previously been charged with three counts of conspiracy.

"Under the plea agreements filed today, these defendants will serve prison terms reflecting their respective roles in a conspiracy to corrupt the college admissions process and which are consistent with prior sentences in this case," said US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. "We will continue to pursue accountability for undermining the integrity of college admissions."

Loughlin and Giannulli were some of the most famous names wrapped up in the brazen scheme to cheat, bribe and lie in the hyper-competitive college admissions process.  They allegedly paid $500,000 as part of a scheme with Rick Singer, the scam's mastermind, and a USC athletics official to get their two daughters into the university as members of the crew team, even though they did not participate in crew....

If Loughlin and Giannulli had gone to trial and been convicted, they could have faced up to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. "The stakes at trial were really high for these two," CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said. "Had they gone to trial and lost, they were looking at several years each.  So they really cut their losses here by cutting these pleas."

They are the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the case. Actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to conspiracy last year for paying $15,000 to the scam's mastermind as part of a scheme to cheat on the SATs and boost her daughter's test scores, and she ultimately served 11 days in prison. 

The way that this plea is described in this press release form the US Attorney leads me to suspect that this is a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea in which the agreement states "a specific sentence ... is the appropriate disposition of the case [which] ... binds the court once the court accepts the plea agreement."  Sure enough, the Loughlin plea agreement makes clear that it is a (c)(1)(C) plea.  I do not recall many of the other defendants in the college admissions scandal who entered plea agreements having a fixed sentence built into the agreement, though that may well have been because, earlier, neither defendants nor prosecutors were inclined to lock in a particular sentence when it was unclear just what "sentencing price" judges were inclined to attached to this conduct.  Now that a few months seems to be the "norm," these latest defendants and the prosecutors now may have been content to lock in the sentence via the plea deal.

As for the "sentencing price" set here by the parties, Lori Loughlin seemingly got a pretty good deal given how much money was spent seeking to get two kids into college.  On the surface, her case seems somewhat similar to Toby MacFarlane's case; as noted here, he spent $450,000 to get his two kids into USC as fake athletic recruits and received a sentence of six month back in November.  But, were anyone concerned about a possible "celebrity discount," it is important to realize that the "Loughlin family" is getting a total of seven month and federal prosecutors may have had many reasons to believe that Loughlin's culpability was reduced compared to her husband and MacFarlane.

A few prior posts focused on these defendants:

• US Attorney in college admission scandal makes plain how trial penalty works even for celebrity actresses
• The trial penalty on fine display as parents in college admissions scandal get hit with new federal bribery charges 
• Notable Wall Street Journal commentaries decry injustices highlighted by college admission scandal prosecutions 

A few of many prior posts on other defendants in college admissions scandal:

• Mapping out next possible celebrity sentencings in wake of indictment in college admissions scandal 
• Big batch of federal plea deals (with relatively low sentencing ranges) in college admissions scandal
• Federal district judge rejects feds request for significant prison term in first sentencing of college bribery scandal
• Feds recommending incarceration terms from 1 to 15 months for parents involved college bribery scandal 
• Noticing the interesting (but perhaps not too consequential) guidelines "loss" issue lurking in the college bribery cases
• Next parent sentenced in college admission scandal gets four months in federal prison
• Next parent up in college admission scandal sentencing also gets four months in federal prison
• BigLaw partner gets one month federal time as latest parent sentenced in college admissions scandal 
• Napa Valley winemaker gets five months of imprisonment, the longest sentence so far in college admissions scandal
• Catching up with another round of sentencings in "Operation Varsity Blues"
• Reviewing the sentencing dynamics as more parents get (minimal) prison time in "Operation Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal 
• Longest prison sentence (six months) imposed in college admission scandal on big-spending dad 
• Nine-month federal prison term (the longest yet) given to former CEO who paid nearly $1 million to benefit four kids in college admission scandal