Hot Pockets heiress gets 5 months

A California mother was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering to ease her daughters’ admission to college, the latest person to be punished in the sweeping college-admissions scandal.

Michelle Janavs, the daughter of a successful entrepreneur — best known for his frozen-food company’s creation of Hot Pockets — is a homemaker and philanthropist. She pleaded guilty to the felony counts in October.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said he would have given Janavs close to a year in prison but cited her history of good works as a mitigating factor. She has volunteered for decades.

Janavs, 49, of Newport Coast, Calif., must pay $250,000 in fines and faces two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.

She is the 15th parent to be sentenced in the scandal that exposed weaknesses in the opaque world of elite college admissions and standardized testing. More than 50 people have been charged in connection with a scheme led by admission consultant William “Rick” Singer, who has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other crimes.

Earlier this month, Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of Pacific Investment Management Co., known as Pimco, was sentenced to nine months in prison for conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering — the most serious penalty to date.

Federal prosecutors described Janavs as the heir to a fortune and said she paid Singer $100,000 to ensure her two daughters received high scores on ACT exams.

Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum that Janavs agreed to pay $200,000 more to get one of her daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as a purported beach volleyball recruit. She played volleyball on her high school team, according to court documents, but did not have the ability to play college sports at the highest level, and she played indoor, not beach, volleyball.