The daughter of one of the dozens of people snared in an investigation into an alleged college bribery scheme said in an old interview that she didn’t “really care about college.”
Lori Loughlin, 54, an actress best known for her role in “Full House” and “Fuller House,” was among the 50 indicted in the nationwide scheme involving elite American colleges, including Yale and Stanford.
Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, 19, a YouTube star, was admitted to the University of Southern California (USC) only because her parents bribed officials there to claim she was a recruit to the crew team, despite the fact that she wasn’t on the team.
The revelation caused some to look at the YouTuber’s past comments about college.
Speaking in a 2018 video, Olivia Jade dismissed studying.
“I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend but I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone, and hope that I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of like game days, partying… I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know,” she said.
Another follower commented, calling Olivia Jade’s view disappointing. Olivia Jade later made an apology video, saying: “I said something super ignorant and stupid. It totally came across that I’m not grateful for college, I’m going to a really nice school and it made it seem like I don’t care.”
“I watch it back and I read the comments and I’m just really disappointed in myself. I’m not here to make excuses … I didn’t mean it that way,” she said.
Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade says “I don’t really care about school.” #lorilaughlin pic.twitter.com/MnZtAlGLNG
— Johnny (@Johnnys_Eye) March 12, 2019
“I hope that you guys accept my apology if I offended you,” she added.
Speaking during an interview on a radio show, the teen said her parents were the main reason she was in college versus focusing on her YouTube work.
“Mostly my parents really wanted me to go” because neither of them went to college, she said.
“I’m so happy they made me go… my sister goes to the same school and we’re pretty much inseparable… but I do like it.”
Jade also appeared to have a promotion going on with Amazon, frequently posting about how she’d obtained everything for her dorm room and college through the company.
A 2018 interview with Jade reads like an advertisement for the company.
“I found pretty much everything for my dorm on Amazon’s college store—it was easy to find it all in one place and there were so many options to choose from. I was also able to use my Prime Student membership and received all the items in two-days with free shipping,” she said.
She hyped Prime Student again, saying it included Prime Video, and recommended it to other college students.
“It’s a no brainer—it has so many perks if you are a college student. I personally love using it for shipping and now watching shows on Prime Video. But there are so many other things too—students get exclusive deals and discounts on textbooks for class. Plus you can sign up and try it for six months—that’s more than a semester!” she said.
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Bribes
According to the FBI, Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 for Olivia Jade, a YouTube star, and their other daughter to be designated as recruits to the University of Southern California (USC) crew team—despite the fact that they weren’t on the team.
The bribe facilitated the daughters’ admission to USC.
Investigators obtained correspondence (pdf) between William “Rick” Singer, who admitted to orchestrating the nationwide bribery scheme, and Giannulli. That included a message after the older daughter, Isabella Rose Giannulli, 20, was presented to the USC subcommittee for athletic admissions as a purported crew recruit on Oct. 27, 2016, that told the designer where to send a $50,000 payment.
Several days later, Giannulli asked the person if he could mention the admission with the athletic director at USC, who he was going to see in Augusta. “I was planning on saying nothing? agree or okay to mention anything?”
Singer responded: “Best to keep [him] out of it. When I met with him a year ago about [your daughter] he felt you were good for a million plus.”
After the older daughter was admitted, Singer and the parents worked together again to get the younger daughter into the university through the same avenue. Prosecutors said some of the children of parents named in the indictments were aware of the scheme, while others were not.