Hot Pockets heir sent to prison in college scam

An heir to the Hot Pockets fortune was sentenced to five months in prison Tuesday for trying to cheat and bribe her daughters’ way into school as part of a college admissions scam.

Michelle Janavs, whose father and uncle invented the microwaveable Hot Pockets before selling their company, showed no emotion as the judge delivered his sentence after she apologized for abandoning her moral compass and hurting her family and friends.

“I am so very sorry that I tried to create an unfair advantage for my children,” she said.

The judge told Janavs that prison time was needed to deter others who might have the gall to use their wealth to break the law and dismissed her argument that her actions were motivated by a love for her children.

The “vast majority of parents do not brazenly try to push their kids in the side door” of universities through bribery, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said. “They don’t love their children any less than you do. They just play by the rules of common decency and fair play.”

Janavs, of Newport Coast, California, is among two dozen prominent parents who have admitted to participating in the scheme by paying huge sums to people willing to cheat on exams for their children or pretend their kids were star athletes for sports they didn’t play.

Janavs admitted to paying the consultant at the center of the scheme, Rick Singer, $100,000 to have a proctor correct her two daughters’ ACT exam answers. She also agreed to pay $200,000 to have one of her daughters labeled as a fake beach volleyball recruit at the University of Southern California.

Janavs’ lawyers portrayed her as a dedicated mother and philanthropist who fell for Singer’s “manipulative sales tactics” because of the love for her children and stress of the hypercompetitive college admissions process.