Andrew Blankstein, an NBC investigative reporter in Los Angeles, tweeted that Huffman was in federal custody after being arrested at home, and that Loughlin was not in town but a warrant was out for her arrest. Huffman will be released after posting a $US250,000 bond. Her husband, actor William H. Macy, was not indicted. Representatives for Huffman did not return a request for comment. Los-Angeles based clothing designer Mossimo Giannulli in a 2002 file picture. Credit:AP A spokeswoman for Loughlin said no further information was available and a representative for Olivia Jade declined to comment. The criminal complaint alleges that Loughlin and Giannulli agreed to "pay bribes totalling $US500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team - despite the fact that they did not participate in crew - thereby facilitating their admission to USC".

Loading The complaint includes copies of emails and transcripts of recorded phone calls. It is unclear whether Olivia Jade or the other students knew about their parents' alleged schemes. USC released a statement on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that read in part, "We are aware of the ongoing wide-ranging criminal investigation involving universities nationwide, including USC. USC has not been accused of any wrongdoing and will continue to cooperate fully with the government's investigation." As details of the investigation flew around social media, attention turned to Olivia Jade, the younger of the two Giannulli sisters, who enrolled in USC last year. Olivia Jade has 1.3 million Instagram followers and 1.9 million YouTube subscribers, a substantial following that has also earned her the title of beauty vlogger as many of her Instagram captions refer viewers back to her YouTube channel.

"Birthday vlog went up on Tuesday," she once captioned a family photo. She has previously posted sponsored content for brands including Sephora, Tresemmé and Smile Direct Club. In December, she tearfully revealed her first brand collaboration, the Olivia Jade x Sephora Collection make-up palette, on a channel of make-up tutorials. At 3 million views, her most popular video is one in which she and fellow YouTube personality David Dobrik teach Loughlin and Full House co-star John Stamos slang terms. Stamos begins the video by muttering, "YouTube stars", under his breath but praises Olivia Jade for her morals. "Can I just say how proud I am of you? You're such a good girl; you have good values, and you project good morals."

Judging by the comments on her YouTube videos, in which she tosses storytelling videos about her life, her followers are drawn to her perceived genuineness. Beneath the 11-minute "day in my life college style LOL", which shows her performing menial tasks on campus, someone wrote: "I think its [sic] so cool how she's in college like a normal teen living with a roomate [sic] and not acting like she's too good. Olivia has always been so humble that's why I love her so much." While some of Olivia Jade's college-era videos and posts have been related to school - she promoted Amazon Prime Student, after all - most are not. However, her attitude towards her education has previously attracted criticism. In April 2017, she tweeted, "it's so hard to try in school when you don't care about anything you're learning". But the apathy peaked about a month before she was set to enroll at USC last September. She posted a YouTube video in which she admitted she "didn't know how much" school she would attend.

She told her followers she hoped she would "try and balance it all", and said she was looking forward to "game days" and "partying", but didn't seem all that enthusiastic about the experience. There was an immediate backlash from people who pointed out that she should be grateful for the opportunity to receive a college education. A few days later, she apologised. "I said something super ignorant and stupid, basically, and it totally came across that I'm not grateful for college. I'm going to a really nice school," she said. "And it just kind of made it seem like I don't care, [that] I just want to brush it off, [that] I'm just going to be successful on YouTube and not have to worry about school." She added she was really disappointed in herself when she thought more about what she had said. And although she felt she was often attacked unfairly for growing up with "a different life" than most people (read: wealthy), she did feel remorse if she came across as spoiled.

"I genuinely want to say I'm sorry for anyone I offended by saying that," she said. "I know it's a privilege, and it's a blessing, and I'm really grateful." Following the indictment, commenters swooped in to criticise Loughlin and Giannulli's alleged privileged actions. "Can you do a storytime of scamming your way into USC?" one person asked under Olivia Jade's latest video. Another wrote, "So how did you get 1.9 million subscribers? Mommy pay for those too?" Instagram has been no kinder, and Olivia Jade has since turned off the comments.

The Washington Post