LOS ANGELES _ In March 2018, several high schools had contacted the University of Southern California, puzzled that certain students were being admitted as recruited athletes. Marymount High School, attended by actress Lori Loughlin's two daughters, "doesn't think either of the students are serious crew participants," a USC employee wrote in an email.
Donna Heinel, the third-ranking administrator in USC's athletic department, was asked to investigate. She reported back the next day: Loughlin's younger daughter rowed for a "competitive" club and USC's coach "thinks she has talent," she wrote.
A year later, Heinel was arrested and charged with arranging dozens of deals to sneak unqualified students into USC, including Loughlin's daughters.
Prosecutors disclosed emails on Wednesday showing Heinel was tasked with probing the very fraud she allegedly perpetrated.
The messages were filed in federal court along with another 480 pages of emails, transcripts of recorded calls and financial and academic records that significantly widen the aperture on William "Rick" Singer's college admissions scam.
An attorney for Heinel and a spokesman for USC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a motion filed on Wednesday, Eric S. Rosen, an assistant U.S. attorney, addressed complaints lodged by defense attorneys, who had argued Rosen and his colleagues were withholding evidence favorable to their clients. He took aim at an argument floated by Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, that the two believed their $500,000 payment to Singer would go toward legitimate donations to USC.
The couple "specifically rejected this 'legitimate' approach," Rosen wrote, pointing to an email exchange between Giannulli and an official in USC's development office. With the fashion designer's older daughter applying in 2016, the official, whose name is redacted in the emails, offered to "flag" her application and asked "if I can be at all helpful in setting up a 1:1 opportunity for her, customized tour of campus for the family, and/or classroom visit."
Giannulli was already conspiring with Singer to pass off the girl as an elite coxswain, prosecutors say. Singer had requested "a picture with her on an ERG (rowing machine) in workout clothes like a real athlete."
Six days before the USC official's email, Giannulli fielded one from Singer: "Got it all. Profile is being made as a coxswain and USC is awaiting my packet with the transcript, test scores and profile."
Giannulli told the development official: "Thanks so much, I think we are squared away." He forwarded the emails to his wife that night, adding, "The nicest I've been at blowing off somebody."
Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering and bribery and have denied any wrongdoing. Heinel has also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering, fraud and bribery.
