The Untold Scams of Lori Loughlin and Her Husband in Operation Varsity Blues | Documentary

now have you heard about this uh this is a big story today operation varsity accusations range from paying thousands of dollars for higher sat scores to presenting students as top athletes in sports they never even played i mean some of these parents allegedly paid up to 6.5 million dollars which is insane honestly for that amount of money just buy a smarter kid worst aunt ever from co-starring with a young keanu reeves to joining the cast of full house laurie loughlin became a household name and was loved as america's favorite aunt she married a successful fashion designer and they started a family in bel air they were the perfect family the media loved to show until greed got the best of them the couple's been accused of paying 500 000 to get their two daughters into usc by using false athletic profiles when i had children always thought you don't want to do anything that one day might rear its ugly head and my children have to pay the price for that [Music] actress lori laughlin waking up in federal prison this morning this is the story of the most famous family involved in the federal investigation known as operation varsity blues this video is sponsored by atlas vpn if you couldn't tell i am a big fan of documentaries with some of my favorites shown right here on screen thanks to atlas vpn i now get access to documentaries and shows shown in other countries that i wouldn't be able to access otherwise right now atlas vpn is running a huge discount one that includes a three-year subscription for just a dollar ninety-nine a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee by clicking the link in the video description below the one thing that netflix amazon prime and disney plus all have in common is something called geo restrictions due to licensing rights this means that hundreds of exclusive shows may not be available to you based on your location with lsvpn you can bypass geo restrictions access your favorite content from around the world enjoy blazing speeds or upgrade your gaming experience at lightning fast speed and get the best deals when shopping online one thing i really appreciate about atlas vpn is that it protects unlimited devices meaning atlas vpn protects all your devices with a single subscription it blocks all malicious links ads and trackers and notifies you when someone is trying to steal your data right now atlas vpn is running a huge discount it means you can get a three year subscription for just a dollar ninety nine a month with a thirty day money back guarantee time is running out so get your deal by clicking the link in the video description below thank you to atlas vpn for sponsoring this video [Music] laurie ann laughlin was born on july 28 1964 in queens new york to joseph and laura lee laughlin lori grew up in hophog long island where she later graduated from hopbag high school one day when lori was 11 years old her mother's friend was driving to manhattan to meet with a modeling agency to try and get her teenage daughters signed they asked if lori wanted to come along laurie's mom was reluctant to let her go and didn't think anything would come of it but she was wrong laurie walked into ford modeling agency and was signed that day to their children's division laurie was featured in catalogues for jcpenney macy's and avon lori often worked with another young model named brook shields who was also signed by ford interestingly enough the movie role that catapulted brook into super stardom was allegedly offered first to laurie but she turned it down laurie broke into the acting world with a small role in the 1979 movie too for to go her next break came on the show the edge of night which was a mystery crime drama lori's character was an aspiring dancer and lori was featured on the show from 1980 to 1983. why do you want to go to video disco tonight huh i like to dance oh great cha cha cha honestly you got these big time dancing feet huh what's wrong with that what's wrong with that we ain't been to that joint in two months and all of a sudden you want to go every night why is that i don't know well you don't know well maybe i'll help you out i bet it's a punk hammer ah so that's what this is about laurie graduated high school in 1982 and was voted most likely to succeed lori had several small roles after the edge of night but her big break would come in 1987 on a brand new show called full house lori joined the sitcom in its second season as rebecca donaldson aka aunt becky if you are familiar with full house you probably know aunt becky as a permanent character but aunt becky was initially only set to appear in six episodes of full house before the producers decided to make her role permanent john stamos played jessie katzopoulos jesse and becky fell in love went on to marry and have two twin boys and becky was known as the caring aunt to her nieces that she and her family lived with uncle jesse was a young musician greek heartthrob and the lovable bad boy of the show lori's character aunt becky was known on full house for her common sense and quick wit in an eerie coincidence a storyline from a 1993 episode of full house has aunt becky and jessie facing a dilemma with their twins when they are forced to navigate the line between wanting what's best for their children and taking things too far they're trying to get their young twin sons accepted into a prestigious preschool but when jesse realizes his boys likely won't get in he blatantly lies on the school's application sending the couple down a path of deception until becky puts a stop to it in the storyline aunt becky tells the preschool administrators the truth even at the risk of jeopardizing her children's futures exasperated becky says to jesse quote i know you want what's best for them but you know what maybe the fast track isn't it our twins are normal healthy kids and whatever track they're on they seem to be doing okay end quote this ethical decision on the part of aunt becky would be the polar opposite of what lori laughlin would later do in real life but more on that later full house was a hit and ran for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995. in 1994 laurie met the man who would become her second husband he was a fashion designer and his name was massimo gianouli one year later in 1995 laurie and massimo eloped once full house ended laurie co-starred alongside tony danza in hudson street but that sitcom was canceled after one season if you've ever walked into a target any time from the year 2000 to 2017 you've most likely seen massimo's creations in 2000 massimo signed a licensing agreement with target for his clothing company called massimo that he created in 1986. massimo was born in los angeles in 1963 and was raised in encino california and he's been scheming since the beginning in an exclusive 2016 interview with a fashion website called the hundreds massimo unapologetically told the story of how he lied to his parents upon graduating high school when he told them he had been accepted into the university of southern california in 1986 once out of the house massimo fooled his parents by falsifying report cards but that wasn't enough as massimo needed money to live so he created fake usc tuition bills and had his dad pay him the tuition money massimo then used the fake tuition money to fund his fashion company massimo said in the interview quote usc was expensive so that was how i was starting my company i used all that cash end quote the first year moss mo pretended to go to college in 1986 he did screen printing jobs while starting his company his first items in the massimo brand were neon colored volleyball shorts and t-shirts massimo went on to say quote i used to have hundreds of thousands of cash in my top drawer and i was like this is kind of too easy i need a bigger platform if i had a bigger account base i could really kill it end quote it appears luck was on his side eight years after starting his company the massimo brand was bringing in 72 million dollars annually forbes even featured massimo in their richest people under 30. in that same interview from the hundreds massimo said quote imagine having a stock worth 600 million dollars and you're running that pig you get a little cuckoo in the head end quote massimo also said his first marriage collapsed because he began believing his own and admitted that leaving his six-month-old son was a horrible thing to do but he said he was partying several nights a week and it was good exposure for the brand it seems massimo might never have stopped believing his own because 2016 the same year he gave this interview and unapologetically admitted to stealing from his parents was around the same time he and laurie would pay a large sum of money to get their daughters into the same university massimo pretended to go to but more on that later [Music] [Music] [Music] the couple gave birth to their first child isabella rose aka bella in september of 1998. a year later in september of 1999 they had their second daughter olivia jade online bella has kept a low profile but olivia would do the opposite becoming a social media influencer and at her peak having 1.9 million subscribers on her youtube channel where she posted makeup tutorials shopping hauls party vlogs and subscriber giveaways olivia also included lori in several of her videos and those videos are some of her most viewed bella and olivia attended an all-girls private catholic high school in los angeles that cost over thirty seven thousand dollars annually per child this totals almost seventy five thousand dollars per year of high school for both bella and olivia and is the same high school the kardashian sisters went to bella would be accepted into university of southern california ahead of olivia but more on that later olivia completed her last year of high school in 2018. by this time she had an instagram that boasted over 700 000 followers announced that she was also accepted into usc and was becoming well known on youtube as a beauty guru and successful influencer olivia was being featured in multiple commercial endorsements and advertisements like amazon's prime student campaign where in one youtube video about college dorm life olivia says quote amazon hooked me up with like everything in my dorm end quote olivia also worked with dolce gabbana marc jacobs beauty tresemme and more at the height of her influencer career she created the olivia jade bronzer and illuminator palette with sephora this vlog shows the sephora launch party for olivia jade the music has been changed for copyright reasons [Applause] [Music] [Music] everything was picture perfect for this famous family it's been nearly 30 years since laurie lachlan made her debut in one of america's most beloved family sitcoms full house and full house fans know it's a role she's been reprising in netflix reboot fuller house which is about to kick off its third season in september already by the way she looks exactly the same very annoying we can't stand it by the way look at you with your lovely daughter isabella yeah how adorable you're so proud of her bella are you going off to college and leaving your mom yes she's not going far not too far but you know she's she's not going too far but my husband keeps saying lori you're not going to see her so just be prepared that is true by the way so many parents watching i'm sure are going through this where they're about to watch a child go off to college kath it happens to you are you preparing for it in any way i think i'm in complete denial i really am because when i think about it too much it will make me cry so i yeah i gotta stop if you're if you're lucky like i was at the same school with my daughter she's still enrolled but she hasn't been there for five years bella you want to say don't do obviously already doing it but where do you see yourself what do you want to what do you want to do in this field probably movies or tv i just love all of it it's so fun like i'd be happy to do anything it's in your dna your father is very artistic as well he's very creative massimo and laurie lived in a 12 000 square foot mediterranean estate in bel air with a layout featuring seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms with all rooms overlooking the bel air country club golf course both their daughters attended the university of southern california massimo had designed a new line of golf clothes and accessories and laurie was starring in the hallmark channels who win calls the heart plus the new full house spin-off titled fuller house this family had it all but behind the scenes massimo and laurie had secretly paid a total of half a million dollars for their daughters to be accepted into usc and now their picture-perfect life was only the calm before the storm a storm that would come to be known by federal investigators as operation varsity blues [Music] operation varsity blues was the name given to a federal investigation that looked into various wealthy individuals that bribed or cheated their children's way into top universities the first person to notice something fishy and reported was a high school guidance counselor named julie julie worked at a private school and while going through a student's college application she noticed something was off the student had been accepted into several universities including georgetown but as julie stared at the college application she couldn't make sense of why this student was listed as an african-american student who was in the top 10 tennis players in california for her age group julie knew this student and this student was a white female who didn't play tennis after seeing such a wild discrepancy julie contacted her superiors as well as the universities the student applied to the student was allowed to rescind her applications and reapply but the student's father who was also on the school's board initially denied that an outside admissions consultant had been involved but he would later change his story and admit an outside admissions consultant had been involved a man named rick singer [Music] rick singer was born in 1960 in santa monica california after high school he played basketball and baseball at trinity university in texas in the 80s rick started a career coaching at sierra college in sacramento california but he would eventually quit coaching to open a business in 2007 called the key hi my name is rick singer and i'm the founder of the key as a father myself i understand the stress the college admissions process can put on your family for the past 25 years our coaches have been helping students discover their life passion in guiding them and their families through the complex college admissions maze my key method unlocks the full potential of your son or daughter and sets them on a course to excel in life getting into the right college will set the trajectory for the rest of your son or daughter's life don't leave it to chance let a key coach come alongside you and your family to truly unlock your students potential the key was supposedly a college counseling service and it did seem to operate as a legitimate company with some of its clients but with many others the key was used as a racketeering enterprise this is how the scam went down rick told wealthy parents he could get their children into prestigious universities through what he described as a side door the front door meant getting in on one's own merit through hard work whether that be intense studying and or athletic ability but rick's side door meant getting students in via a bribe by mommy and daddy in 2011 rick began taking payments from wealthy parents for as much as 75 000 to boost their son or daughter's a-c-t or s-a-t scores rick was able to pull this off by bribing test proctors in both los angeles and houston rick also bribed a psychologist to diagnose his favored students with learning disabilities so students received extra time while taking the act or sat this extra time allowed the bribed exam administrator to then doctor the test after the student handed them in giving them a near perfect score in 2012 rick founded the key worldwide foundation it was supposed to be a charitable organization that helped underprivileged youth but authorities believe the organization was actually a front for bribes because it was listed as a charity with the irs any donations made by clients could be listed as tax deductions these charitable contributions then went to rick and his buddies there were few sports that singer wouldn't use to falsify a student's athletic profile he liked to use lower profile sports that kind of flew under the radar such as soccer tennis lacrosse volleyball swimming water polo or track and field rick said that basketball could work but only for women and even football if it was a specialty position like kicker or punter but good old rick had more than one method of getting students into these universities rick bribed a wide network of coaches and administration to nominate unqualified applicants as elite recruited athletes by doing so these nominations allowed students entrance into the university of their choice to make these unathletic kids look legit rick would have students faces photoshopped onto athletes bodies for the applications one of those friends that rick singer bribed was yale's women's head soccer coach named rudy meredith rudy put a prospective student who didn't play soccer on a school list of recruits doctored her supporting portfolio to indicate she was a player and later accepted four hundred thousand dollars from rick singer rick had his claws into personnel at georgetown stanford the university of california ucla university of san diego university of southern california university of texas at austin wake forest university and yale despite all his dodgy dealings rick wasn't hiding in the shadows he published two books and tried to get a reality tv show for his business in his reality show audition tape rick says quote this is a game my job is to life coach kids and families through the whole process of getting into college it's unbelievable it's so competitive to get your kid into school today end quote but where did rick find these wealthy parents who would illegally pay handsome sums of money to get their children into school with fake test scores and fake athletic resumes through networking one example includes the heiress to the hot pockets fortune who sat on a school board through the hot pockets heiress and other wealthy members of that school board rick gained access to an investment management firm called pimco but not just pimco rake gained access through others to morgan stanley oppenheimer financial and ubs rick held lectures at these lucrative firms about the importance of setting children up with a solid education and then he would promote his business the key through these lucrative connections is how massimo and laurie met rick and paid him a total of half a million dollars rick massimo and laurie came up with the scheme that both daughters were rowers on a crew team massimo and laurie had both girls pose as rowers and these pictures were submitted with their college applications that had them down as gold medal crew champions with skill sets of awareness organization direction and steering the truth was neither bella or olivia jade ever participated in crew olivia and bella were happily enjoying their time at usc although olivia received backlash after saying in one of her 2018 youtube vlogs about juggling college and influencer fame that she doesn't even know why she's going to college i don't know how much of school i'm going to attend but i do want the experience of like game days partying i don't really care about school as you guys all know olivia would later take down the video and apologize but less than one year after that video was posted in 2018 olivia would no longer be in school that's because rick singer had been quietly found out and approached by federal investigators and in an effort to receive a lighter sentence he was now secretly working with the fbi to incriminate many of the parents who paid him bribes in fall of 2018 only a few months after olivia jade made her apology video rick would make a wiretapped phone call to laurie laughlin as the feds listened in [Music] in the fbi transcript rick is listed as cooperating witness number one the fbi has not released the full transcripts between rick and many of the parents but they did release part of rick's wiretap call with lori the following is word for word what the fbi has released between rick singer and lori laughlin rick says if you ever ever were to say anything laurie replies so we zoe just so we just have to say we made a donation to your foundation and that's it end of story rick says that is correct lori replies okay rick says terrific laurie says okay okay rick replies i just wanted to make sure i touched base because i didn't want you to all of a sudden what like what's this call coming from lori says okay yeah okay totally all right so so that's it so it's it's the irs it's not anyone from usc it's the irs rick replies that is correct lori replies okay very good in total rick made 34 phone calls of this nature telling parents the irs was auditing his foundation and they should not mention the bribes after the feds felt they had enough to prosecute they began making arrests and the news hit the airwaves on march 12th of 2019. it's the largest ever college admissions cheating scam exposed 300 agents across six states wiretaps a year-long sting this morning 50 people arrested most of them wealthy parents all accused of trying to do the same thing getting their kids into some of the most elite schools in the country operation varsity blues the massive sting exposing the ugly truth that admission to college can be bought bartered and stolen for some a wiretap transcript details a father and singer creating a plan to trick usc into thinking his son was a football kicker the father laughing telling singer that's just totally hilarious admitting his son's high school doesn't have a football team parents of students who applied to those schools but did not get in reacting overnight one tweeting makes me feel good that my son was wait listed at stanford and rensselaer paulie he did it on his own but probably lost out to one of these kids those kids parents now facing jail time include real estate moguls wine vineyard owners entrepreneurs like todd blake who tweeted his excitement over his daughter's admission to usc and trend expert jane buckingham who posted this inspiring instagram message last spring don't cheat it reads lori was filming on the set of when calls the heart in canada when the news broke the next day she took a plane to the u.s and on march 13th of 2019 she and massimo surrendered to the authorities they were held in custody for a short time and later released on bail two days later the hallmark channel dropped lorry from its show when calls the heart and soon after netflix removed her from the final season of fuller house [Music] sephora cut all ties with olivia jade as well one of lachlan's old interviews has come back to haunt her when i had children always thought i don't want to do anything that one day might rear its ugly head and my children have to pay the price for that lachlan who played aunt becky on full house is currently free on one million dollars bond she discussed morality with the christian broadcasting network the morals are right there's a message to at every in every episode um you know how to be a good person how to be a better person right from wrong it's a good message prosecutors made it clear that they believed in most cases the children didn't know what their parents did to get them into college but was this the case for olivia jade and isabella by the end of operation varsity blues 50 individuals were charged with fraud and bribery related offenses by the fbi and u.s attorney's office the indictment against laurie and massimo alleged that they paid 500 000 to the key worldwide foundations so that the university of southern california admissions committee would get the impression that both bella and olivia would join usc's women's rowing team neither girl had ever trained in that sport and neither had any intention of joining the team while all this was hitting mainstream media olivia and bella were still enrolled at usc and were allowed to remain despite the controversy olivia never returned to the university and bella would soon withdraw lori and massimo were intent on proving their innocence and spent a year arguing that they weren't guilty but in may of 2020 they quickly changed their pleas to guilty after prosecutors released images of the two sisters posing on rowing machines sentencing took place on august 21st of 2020 and lori was sentenced to two months in prison while massimo was sentenced to five months laurie served her two months in prison and was out on december 28th of 2020. she was fined 150 000 and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service at the time of this recording she is currently under supervised release until december 2022 the doj did not make most of the court documents public so unfortunately i can't tell you exactly what massimo said and did but massimo served five months in prison and was released on april 2nd of 2021 he was fined 250 000 in order to do 250 hours of community service although olivia jade was dropped by her sponsors and received major backlash online when the college admissions scandal broke her career quickly recovered she is still a youtuber with over 1 million subscribers maintains his career as an influencer and was even on dancing with the stars in 2021 she finished in eighth place lori's career picked back up as well massimo and bella have since maintained a low profile rick singer continues to sing like a canary and the fbi considers him a cooperating witness rick has pled guilty to four felonies and at the time of this recording has not seen the inside of a jail cell rick is still working with the fbi in an attempt to go after other parents who were involved in his college admissions schemes another arrest was made as recently as april of 2022 it's unclear if rick singer will ever be sentenced or not after the news broke the reaction online came swiftly and there was one thing most people online agreed upon the unfairness of it all people took to various platforms and shared their thoughts and experiences with college admission one twitter user shared quote i graduated from college with a student loan debt of one hundred thousand dollars because my family couldn't afford to send me to college i worked during the school year and summer and had a small band scholarship i may be in debt but at least i earned my education the other thing that frustrated a lot of people was how light lori's sentence was laurie's case drew parallels to that of kelly williams bolar an ohio mother with no criminal record who lived in public housing and was taking college classes at night kelly's two daughters spent half their time at her father's house in another county and in wanting to give her daughters a better education kelly was charged with falsifying an address a felony and sentenced to three years in prison in order to pay thirty thousand dollars for using her father's address instead of her own on her daughter's school records to many americans the double standard was a glaring fact that we have two justice systems one for the wealthy [Music] and one for everybody else after kelly's case became a national sensation a judge reduced her sentence to 10 days in jail 3 years probation and 80 hours of community service at the time of this recording the u.s government maintains that usc is a victim of fraud it is one thing prosecutors say for a school to take into account the giving history of an applicant's family but it's another for a family to secretly funnel money to an employee who helps admit a student who would have otherwise been turned away if not for their falsified credentials and the bribe money rick singer's ghost writer of his two books said rick was simply willing to do what parents wanted done which meant whatever it took to get their children into better colleges than their peers she told usa today quote these parents tend to micromanage and make the kid the perfect little clone of themselves to show how perfect they are this has been the twisted tale of the most famous family in the varsity blues college scandal [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you are a fan of learning about scams cults and cautionary tales be sure to like subscribe and hit that bell icon so you never miss an upload [Music] thank you for watching my name is josie and i hope you come back for the next video [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: NOT THE GOOD GIRL

Views: 298,060

Keywords: Lori Loughlin, Olivia Jade, Isabella Bella Giannulli, Mossimo Giannulli, Operation Varsity blues, Rick Singer, Hot Pockets Heiress, USC, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown University, College Admission, College Admissions Scam, Full House, Fuller House, Keanu Reeves, Documentary, When Calls The Heart, When Hope Calls, Hallmark Channel, Bel Air, Dancing With The Stars, Sephora, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Dolce & Gabanna, Kelley Williams Bolar, Harvard

Id: Ignu_uN_VG8

Length: 38min 28sec (2308 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2022