Michelle Janavs, heiress to the Hot Pockets brand, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months in prison in connection with the college admissions scandal.
Janavs had pleaded guilty to paying consultant Rick Singer $100,000 to have two of her daughters take the ACT test with a proctor who reviewed and corrected their answers.
She also admitted to agreeing to pay another $200,000 to have one of her daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as a beach volleyball recruit.
Both the test administrator and proctor have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Janavs, a former executive at the family’s company, was sentenced to two years’ supervised release and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced.
In October, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The sentence fell short of federal prosecutors’ recommendation of 21 months.
A sentencing memo described Janavs as one of four defendants who were “far and away the most culpable parents” and “repeat players, who engaged in the conspiracy again and again, over years,” CNN reported.
“This crime does not define who she is,” Janavs’s attorney John Littrell told reporters Tuesday, saying the disparity between her sentence and the government’s recommendation “reflects that she’s a profoundly good person.”
“Michelle’s gonna be defined by what she’s done the rest of her life, and she has dedicated decades of her life to helping exactly the types of kids who were harmed in this case,” he added, according to CNN.
