Lori Loughlin's friends think that her husband Mossimo Giannulli 'concocted' the college admissions scheme

Mossimo Giannulli wasn't very popular with wife Lori Loughlin's friends, who are reportedly blaming him for the couple's involvement in the massive college cheating scheme that could send them each to jail for 40 years.

Loughlin and Giannulli have been married for 21 years, but "her friends don't like him," an insider told Us Weekly.

"Everyone feels bad for her," the source added. "They think the situation was something concocted by her husband."

SEE ALSO: Lori Loughlin 'very afraid' of one thing in college cheating scandal

Official documents released when the charges were announced last month demonstrate that both of them were allegedly involved in the scheme, in which they allegedly paid $500,000 to get both of their daughters into USC under the false pretenses that they were recruited for the women's crew team.

After rejecting a plea deal offering less prison time, Loughlin and Giannulli were hit with additional money laundering charges, in addition to the existing charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. They're pleading not guilty to all charges.

Giannulli made more headlines this week when a 2016 interview published on the "The Hundreds" blog resurfaced in which the designer bragged about lying to his parents about attending USC himself.

The article claims that Giannulli created fake report cards in order to get his parents to give him tuition money, which he used "to initiate his foray into the T-shirt" business. CNN reached out to USC, who confirmed that Giannulli attended the university during the 1984 spring semester -- but not as a fully matriculated student. Rather, he was in the College of Continuing Education, "a non-degree program open to anyone with no formal admissions requirements."

SEE ALSO: Here's the 'only way' Lori Loughlin and husband could avoid prison time

His younger daughter, Olivia Jade, seemed to back up those claims in a March 8 interview on "The Zach Sang Show," which was published just before charges were announced against her parents.

"I don’t know if I am supposed to say this, sorry Dad. But [he] was like never enrolled in college, he faked his way through it," Jade said. "Yeah, so then he started his whole business with tuition money that his parents thought was going to college."

Jade and her older sister, Isabella Rose, are technically still enrolled at USC as the school continues to investigate the scandal on a case-by-case basis, but they're not expected to return as students.