The Olivia Jade College Admissions Scandal Explained

Olivia Jade Giannulli appeared on Red Table Talk this week, finally breaking her silence about her parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli involvement in the 'Operation Varsity Blues' college admissions scandal. But, what is the Olivia Jade college admissions scandal all about? Here's everything you need to know...

What is Operation Varsity Blues aka the US college admissions scam?

According to a federal indictment, at least 50 people - from Hollywood actors to business executives, were charged with participating in fraudulent behaviour to get students into Ivy League colleges, most notably TV treasures Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

The people charged in the investigation, known as ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ and considered the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted, range from SAT/ACT administrators and exam proctors to coaches and college administrators at the prestigious schools – as well as 33 parents.

How did the college admissions scandal operate?

Partaking in a nationwide scheme, the parents allegedly paid a college prep organisation to take tests on behalf of students or correct their answers. More than that, the organization would also bribe college coaches to admit students as recruited athletes regardless of their talent.

What does it have to do with Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin?

Two of the parents named in the investigation – which US attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling says includes CEOs, actors and a fashion designer – include Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman and Full House’s Lori Loughlin. While Huffman's husband, William hasn't been charged, Loughlin's - Mossimo Giannulli - has.

Huffman was accused of paying $15,000 to a fake charity for college counselling and preparation called The Key Worldwide Foundation – started by William Rick Singer – to facilitate cheating for her daughter, Sofia Grace Macy, on the SATs. Loughlin on the other hand, was accused of paying a total of $500,000 alongside her husband to have two of her daughters recruited to the USC crew team despite not having valid experience or even planning to participate in the sport.

On April 4th, a judge warned the pair not to speak about the case with their children, as they are technically witnesses in the case.

When was Felicity Huffman found guilty?

According to a press release by the Department of Justice in the district of Massachusetts, Felicity Huffman took a plea agreement that means she plead guilty to the charge of 'using bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children's admission to selective colleges and universities.'

Huffman's plea agreement meant she could face up to 10 months in prison, according to Us Weekly. However, according to the DoJ, the prosecutors would be recommending prison time of between four and six months followed by a year of supervised release.

However, she was sentenced to 14 days in prison, 250 hours of community service and a one-year supervised release. She was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

According to a former New York State prosecutor, Adam Citron, pleading guilty quickly allows for the best possible deal as it shows accountability and prevents the court case from dragging.

Felicity Huffman spent 11 days in prison following her 14 day sentence. She served her time in Dublin, California at her request to be close to her family.

At the time Huffman was reporting to prison, Lori Loughlin was pictured leaving a yoga studio in LA. Her court battle will not continue until next year when she is scheduled to appear at a pre-trial meeting on January 17th at 11am - however she is not required to attend herself.

Huffman released a statement following her plea agreement, stating that is 'ashamed' of the pain she has caused and feels she has 'betrayed' her daughter. 'I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done,' she said, 'I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community.

'I want to apologise to them and, especially, I want to apologise to the students who work hard every day to get into college,' she continued, 'and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.'

Affirming that her daughter was unaware of her fraudulent activity, she added: 'In my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her. This transgression toward her and the public, I will carry for the rest of my life.'

Why was Felicity Huffman's sentence so short?

Huffman's sentence initially received a ton of backlash online for it's leniency, with many comparing it to Kelley Williams-Bolor's sentence for education fraud back in 2011. The single mother was sentenced to five years in prison for using the address of her fathers children to get them into a better school district, although eventually going on to serve nine days after huge backlash. Given that Kelley is African American, many pointed out the huge discrepancy in her sentencing compared to a white, wealthy women.

However, John Legend spoke out about the comparison, saying both women should get less time and that American's are 'desensitised' by how often people are jailed. 'I get why everyone gets mad when rich person X gets a short sentence and poor person of color Y gets a long one,' he said on Twitter. 'The answer isn’t for X to get more; it’s for both of them to get less (or even none!!!) We should level down not up.

'No one in our nation will benefit from the 14 days an actress will serve for cheating in college admissions,' he continued, 'we don’t need to lock people up for any of this stuff.'

Who are Felicity Huffman’s daughters?

Huffman has two daughters, Sofia Grace and Georgia Grace however only Sofia Grace is known to have benefited from the scheme. Documents say that her SAT score improved by 400 points following Huffman's donation to The Key after a cooperating witness told authorities he traveled from Tampa to a West Hollywood test center to administer Huffman's daughter's exam. She currently is thought to attend Stanford University.

Has Lori Loughlin been found guilty?

Lori Loughlin, on the other hand, was facing much more serious charges than Huffman. A day after 13 of the parents -including Huffman - entered guilty pleas, the 19 who did not admit guilt were hit with a second charge of money laundering in addition to mail fraud. A DoJ press release revealed that the maximum sentence for each of these charges is 20 years in prison, amounting to a total of 40 years potential jail time.

Over one year after the charges were brought, in May 2020, Loughlin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, and her husband pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud

In August, Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison while her husband was sentenced to five months. She began serving her two-month prison sentence at FCI Dublin in Northern California on October 30, 2020 with visitation rights suspended due to Covid-19. Giannulli reported to prison on November 19.

Who is YouTuber Olivia Jade?

One of Loughlin’s daughters, Olivia Jade, is a prominent YouTuber with nearly 2 million subscribers. She uses her account to document college life and works with brands to profit off of college living. In one sponsored post on Instagram she is pictured in a newly decorated dorm, with the caption ‘Officially a college student! It’s been a few weeks since I moved into my dorm and I absolutely love it. I got everything I needed from Amazon with @primestudent and had it all shipped to me in just two-days. #ad #primestudent #allonamazon’

It’s with this in mind that she and her mother have received a ton of backlash online, given that she has posted videos stating that she doesn’t care about her education and wanted to attend college for the social aspect. She has since stated her mind has been changed and she does value her education, tweeting in February ‘YouTube will always be my #1 passion. I promise I’d way rather be filming 24/7 than sitting in 6 hours of classes straight but an education is also super important to me so thank u for ur patience and letting me figure out time management. Ily bbs’

Olivia was later dropped by Sephora, whom she was partnered with for her Olivia Jade eyeshadow palette. 'After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately,' the company told TheWrap.

It was also reported that both Olivia and her sister Isabella decided to drop out of the University of Southern California fearing being 'viciously bullied', according to TMZ. The gossip site stated that Olivia was 'a mess, despondent and feeling like it's the end of the world' and plans to 'lay low' and stay out of school for 'a long while' alongside her sister.

In August, Olivia Jade returned to Instagram with a big message to the tabloids. After a six-month hiatus following her parents - Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli- involvement in the US college admissions scam (which was only broken once on her mothers birthday) the YouTube influencer posted a picture of herself with two fingers up, tagging various media outlets such as the Daily Mail, Star Magazine and Perez Hilton with the hashtags '#close #source #says'.

Olivia had been keeping a low profile on social media and in public since Operation Varsity Blues became known to the public, however she was seemingly done with the tabloid rumours about her life. After eight months, she returned to YouTube with a life update introducing her intention to vlog again.

The extent to which Olivia and her sister knew about the fraud has also been called into question, namely because she posed for rowing photos used as part of the fraudulent application claiming she was a rowing scholar.

Olivia Jade rowing photo

How are people reacting to the college admissions scam?

The layers to this scandal, the extent of privilege experienced has caused shockwaves online as people come to grips with just how audacious this scam actually is. Not only do the children of these parents already experience extreme privilege, arguably not even needing a college education to have a pretty comfortable life, and definitely having access to much greater access to tools that could legitimately better their education and enable them to attend these colleges on merit than other students, the fact that they have taken the spot of someone whom deserves it, who could need this place and prestigious education to hugely enhance their own and their family’s life opportunities is abhorrent.

While the class system may not be as embedded in US society as it sadly is in the UK, it’s clear that working class students work tirelessly to gain a limited spot at such prestigious schools, often needed athlete-based scholarships to afford the mass of expenses that come with US Colleges. The fact some of these spots are going to students who have not only refused to do the work to get there but don’t necessarily even value the education speaks volumes to the entitlement wealthy and privileged people have.

Click through to see the best Twitter reactions to the scandal from celebrities to cultural critics...

What happened to Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman when they were initially charged?

The pair were charged and arrested with Huffman, Loughlin and Giannulli later all released on a set bond. Huffman had a bond set at $250,000 and was asked to surrender her passport. Loughlin was apparently on a flight when a warrant was released for her arrest, as such her husband appeared in court for them both where a bond was set at $1million for each of them and they too were told to surrender their passports.