Sephora cuts ties with TV star's daughter after college cheating scam

[March 15, 2019]  By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) - LVMH's Sephora beauty chain ended its partnership with Olivia Jade following a massive college cheating scandal involving her celebrity parents who were charged this week in an alleged scheme to help rich Americans get their children into elite universities.

"After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately," a Sephora spokesperson wrote to Reuters in an email on Thursday.

Olivia Giannulli, the 19-year-old daughter of "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli, is a social media "influencer" who goes by the name Olivia Jade online.

Products from her makeup collaboration had been removed from Sephora's website by Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately clear whether her products were available in stores.

A representative for Jade could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jade, who has more than 3 million followers on Instagram and YouTube combined, received backlash online shortly after details of the fraud scheme emerged along with old videos in which she stated that she does not "care about school."

Loughlin and Giannulli were accused on Tuesday of paying bribes of $500,000 in a scheme that involved cheating on college entrance exams to help their daughters, Olivia and Isabella Giannulli, get into the University of Southern California, according to court documents.

Loughlin and Giannulli were taken into federal custody and later released on separate $1 million bonds on Wednesday.

The couple are among 50 people charged on Tuesday with taking part in a scam that steered graduating high school students into elite universities, including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford, by cheating the admissions process. Prosecutors called it the largest such scandal in U.S. history.

Some of Jade's online videos and photos were paid partnerships with Amazon.com Inc and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co.. Representatives from those two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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