LOS ANGELES – Designer Mossimo Giannulli has been released from a California prison and is under community confinement after his arrest for his role in a bribery scheme for college admissions, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said on Saturday.
Giannulli, 57, is married to former “Full House” star Lori Loughlin. They pleaded guilty last year to paying half a million dollars to put their two daughters at the University of Southern California. Loughlin was released from a Dublin prison in December after spending two months behind bars.
The two were among the most prominent parents accused in the scheme, which officials say involved high bribes to bring unworthy teenagers to schools with fraudulent test scores or false athletic credentials.
Giannulli was released on Friday for community confinement, which means confinement at home or a retirement home, said Emery Nelson, a spokeswoman for federal prisons, by email. He did not specify who Giannulli was assigned “for reasons of privacy and protection”.
Giannulli, whose Mossimo clothing line was a Target brand until recently, was in custody at a federal prison in Lompoc, near Santa Barbara. He reported in November and was scheduled to launch this month.
Records show that he is under the supervision of a Bureau of Prisons facility in Long Beach that runs a retirement home, as well as inmates who are under home confinement. Records say he will be released from confinement on April 17.
The Department of Justice has ordered the increase in the use of home confinement and the accelerated release of eligible inmates by the Prison Department – with priority for those in low or medium security prisons – starting with the critical hotspots of viruses. But supporters raised concerns about racial and financial inequalities among those who receive confinement at home.
In Touch reported Giannulli’s release for the first time.
Nicole Acevedo contributed.