The truly strange case of the rich and/or famous people who allegedly scammed their kids into Ivy League colleges — the one catchily dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” — continues apace. For one thing, we can now type this Mad Libs word cluster: Full House alum Lori Laughlin is now free after paying a $1 million bail. Now that we type it out, it makes even less sense, proving again that the worst and the weirdest timelines have somehow intersected. Chaos indeed reigns.
Whereas fellow conspirator Felicity Huffman was awakened Wednesday morning by armed feds, Loughlin peacefully turned herself into authorities, having flown back to Los Angeles from Canada, where she was filming a project. As per Deadline, Loughlin posted bail and agreed to travel restrictions, including surrendering her passport. Her husband, Massimo Giannulli was arraigned Tuesday and has also posted bail, as did Huffman.
Loughlin, Huffman, and dozens of others are accused of participating in a widespread scam to cheat the college admissions process. In Loughlin’s case, she and her husband paid $500,000 to one William Rick Singer, an “admissions consultant” who helped get their two daughters into USC by fraudulently presenting them as crew athletes. Singer has claimed to have helped over 750 wealthy families over the years.
As news of Loughlin’s bail posting broke, so did another, far stranger part of the story: TMZ revealed that Olivia Jade, one of Loughlin’s daughters, had been celebrating spring break on a yacht owned by Rick Caruso, who happens to be a member of USC’s board of trustees. Caruso’s daughter Gianna is friends with Jade, and even appears in her popular YouTube videos, Jade being a vlogger with over two million subscribers.
“My daughter and a group of students left for spring break prior to the government’s announcement yesterday,” Caruso told TMZ. “Once we became aware of the investigation, the young woman decided it would be in her best interests to return home.” Jade is reported to be off of the yacht and heading to be with her newly-freed parents.
