Full and Fuller House star Lori Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, made
headlines when they were charged in the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by
the U.S. Department of Justice.
The celebrity couple was accused of shelling out half a million to help their daughters
make the cut.
Let's take a closer look at their real net worth — and how much they stand to lose.
"Bread!
Dough!
Money!
Yay!
Money!"
Lori Loughlin wasn't even supposed to be a regular on Full House, where she starred alongside
the Olsen twins as Uncle Jesse's lady love.
The starlet was originally contracted to only six episodes, but Aunt Becky soon became a
fan favorite and producers loved the way she interacted with the Tanner girls.
They ended up giving her a supporting role, where she became a mainstay and finished out
the series in 1995.
Loughlin's first big break was a Tab Cola commercial, and by the time she landed her
role in Full House, she was already working in TV.
The series helped make her a household name, and she's since landed some big roles, from
the 90210 reboot, to some G-rated basic cable cult hits.
All this hard work helped her amass a pretty impressive $20 million, according to Celebrity
Net Worth.
Mossimo Giannulli knows what it's like to get a helping hand from Mom and Dad.
Though his parents didn't spend half a million dollars helping him cheat his way into USC
— the alma mater he ditched before launching his namesake brand — he did supposedly receive
a generous $100,000 loan from his father to start his clothing line, according to the
Hollywood Reporter.
And according to his daughter Olivia Jade, the time he did spend in college was "faked":
"I don't know if I'm supposed to say this.
Sorry dad!
But, he wasn't ever, like, 'enrolled' in college.
But he, like, faked his way through it, and—"
"Whoa."
Now, if the name Mossimo sounds familiar, that's because you've probably seen it in
every Target across America.
Children of the early aughts might think of the brand as those affordable, not-so-trendy
basics your mom picks up while browsing for snacks and school supplies, but at one point,
Mossimo was a streetwear brand with the same cool power as a modern day Supreme.
The clothing line was worth a whopping $275 million in 1996.
What can we say?
The '80s and '90s had a thing for neon-colored activewear.
Today, Giannulli is worth about $80 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
According to Variety, Loughlin and Giannulli live in a 12,000 square-foot mansion in one
of Los Angeles' most star-studded neighborhoods that was listed for $35 million in 2017.
Basically, it's the pinnacle of luxury, which served these two well when they were both
arrested — Loughlin reportedly used the property as collateral to post her $1 million
bond.
That wasn't the first time Loughlin and Giannulli benefited from their real estate purchases.
The pair purchased a different Bel Air home in 2002 for around $8 million, which was renovated
and sold in 2011 for $16.6 million.
In 2010, they purchased a $7.5 million Beverly Hills, Tuscan-style villa.
They renovated that house, too, and sold it for more than $18.2 million.
Believe it or not, Fuller House was one of the most-watched TV series of 2016.
It held up to both The Walking Dead and Sunday Night Football, which says a lot for a second
incarnation of an old sitcom that doesn't even have the Olsen Twins in it.
Each episode reportedly pulled in 14.4 million viewers within 35 days of its Netflix premiere.
It's unclear exactly how much Loughlin made from the Full House reboot, but it's probably
enough to afford at least some of the rent on the Tanners' undeniably expensive San Francisco
home.
Loughlin's Fuller House salary hasn't been disclosed publicly, but co-star Jodie Sweetin's
payday was revealed during a 2017 child support case.
According to The Blast, the actress made a whopping $26,000 per week playing Stephanie
Tanner.
As a smaller character who only appears in 13 episodes, Loughlin's payday is likely far
less than Sweetin's, but still nothing to sneeze at.
According to Business Insider, Full House had one of the most-watched series finales
ever with a whopping 24.3 million viewers.
With a fan base like that and the sheer amount of reruns, you'd think the stars would be
making bank long after the series stopped airing new episodes.
That's apparently not the case.
In an interview with PopEater, series star Bob Saget revealed that he couldn't retire
with his Full House money, and he apparently hardly makes anything on reruns.
"There's no Full House money.
I didn't own the show.
You get nothing.
Residual checks on shows are nothing.
They buy a cycle.
Full House just started a new cycle, so someone, not me, is going to make a fortune.
Whatever I get is found money.
I hate talking about it.
Nothing's what anybody thinks."
If Danny Tanner isn't lining his pockets on reruns, imagine the pennies Loughlin must
be earning from the show.
Loughlin has a knack for turning small roles into something greater.
Not only did she manage to make herself a regular with the Full House franchise for
two separate series, but she also managed to transform an initially small role in the
2013 Hallmark Canadian Western drama When Calls the Heart into a years-long gig.
In a 2017 interview with Today, Loughlin revealed that When Calls the Heart was originally a
TV movie that was hoping to get picked up as a series.
She signed on for just a single day of filming, but producers were hopeful that her name would
help catapult the film into long-term success.
"And, it, now we're heading into, Season 4 is airing, it's looking good for Season 5."
Things are actually still looking good for the Hallmark series, which is now in its sixth
season.
But things aren't looking so good just for Loughlin's role.
According to Deadline, the show will continue without the actress following fallout from
the scandal and her arrest.
The show is temporarily on hiatus as producers reportedly figure out what to do with the
episodes they've already filmed.
Loughlin's paycheck took a major hit following the news of her alleged involvement in the
widely-publicized college admissions scam.
“We are constantly hit all day long with news, just by picking up your phone, headlines
pop up, and it's not always pleasant."
Hallmark completely cut ties with the star, who had spent five years playing Abigail Stanton
on When Calls the Heart.
She also starred in some of the network's Christmas flicks, and no less than 15 installments
of the channel's Garage Sale Mystery movies.
Following Loughlin's departure, the Garage Sale Mystery series was cancelled.
In addition to Hallmark giving Loughlin the boot, the actress will not appear in the fifth
and final season of Fuller House.
"How would you like to see it all end?"
"Oh my goodness.
I actually don't want to see it all end."
Though she may have already been written off the series before her legal drama, the Hollywood
Reporter confirmed there were "no plans" to bring back Aunt Becky.
In truth, it'd probably make for a pretty awkward Thanksgiving...
Mossimo Giannulli's clothing brand experienced an astronomical rise and spectacular fall.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
"Giannulli's company grew from a garage operation in 1987 into a $72-million annual enterprise
in eight years."
The majority of that success came from casual menswear, rather than higher-end designs.
Mossimo had grown to 300 employees, and in 1996, it went public on the New York Stock
Exchange.
At 32, Giannulli became the youngest chairman of a company listed on the NYSE.
Unfortunately, all good things can't last.
Just a year later, the company reportedly lost $18.7 million.
Ever wonder how Mossimo ended up going from runways to Target?
The whole thing went down in the new millennium, an era where neon athletic wear fell out of
favor for butterfly clips and Spice Girls-approved pleather.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Giannulli, quote, "signed over rights to his name, signature,
voice and personality" in 2000 to help save his sinking company.
The licensing deal actually worked, and the designer was expected to earn at least $8.5
million in royalties the first year.
Giannulli's Target deal shocked longtime fans of Mossimo because it positioned the brand
away from the world of high fashion and made it a mainstay for busy families on a budget.
The brand went from being advertised in GQ and Vanity Fair to slapping its name on area
rugs and baby clothes.
But Target believed it could rake in more than $300 million worth of sales with the
brand's new image.
The box store wasn't wrong.
Mossimo became one of the retailer's "billion dollar brands," but Target announced plans
in 2017 to phase out the product line.
A decade after Mossimo's IPO, Giannulli sold his company for a reported $119 million in
2006 to Iconix Brand Group, which owns a variety of clothing and accessories companies, including
Ed Hardy, Joe Boxer, and Candies.
That price tag may not seem like a lot compared to Mossimo's $275 million valuation in the
'90s, but the brand was projected to pull in $20 to $25 million in royalties in 2007.
In comparison, Mossimo saw $32 million in sales in 1992, long before the Target licensing
deal.
In other words, while Target was still probably making a killing on the brand, Giannulli's
cut was likely far less than when he was flying solo in his company's heyday.
The same day Iconix announced its Mossimo deal, it also agreed to buy Mudd — you know,
those jeans you see at Kohl's — for $88 million.
This helped boost Mossimo's outlook, and shares of the brand closed up 40 percent following
news of the acquisition.
As part of the deal, Giannulli joined Iconix "as creative director for his namesake brand,"
so all in all, the whole thing sounded like a decent decision for Giannulli.
Loughlin and Giannulli's collective $100 million net worth might mean nothing if they're forced
to pay billions requested in a lawsuit filed in March 2019.
Loughlin and Giannulli were sued alongside other parents indicted in "Operation Varsity
Blues" for "no less than" $500 billion.
The multi-claim fraud class action suit was brought by Jennifer Kay Toy, an angry mom
who just so happens to be an award-winning former teacher.
Toy claims her son, Joshua, had a 4.2 GPA but didn't get into some of the colleges wrapped
up in the admissions scam even though he applied to them, unlike Loughlin's daughter Olivia
Jade:
"Clout is an actual word."
"Oh, I just thought it was like a social media thing."
"Once again: Money on that education."
$500 billion a lot of money to demand, considering Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — the "richest
man in modern history" — only has $131 billion.
Deadline reports that Toy's suit is, quote, "unlikely to be the last such lawsuit to be
filed in the coming week and months out of this sprawling conspiracy," so Loughlin and
Giannulli had better prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
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