Michelle Janavs
Michelle Janavs
Michelle Janavs is an heiress of her family's food manufacturing company Chef America Inc., which makes the microwave snack Hot Pockets and other frozen foods. She worked as an executive at the company for a time.
In February 2020, Janavs was sentenced to five months in prison for agreeing to pay bribes totaling $300,000 to get her two daughters into prestigious universities.[1]
Legal Issues
Janavs paid the scheme's mastermind, William Rick Singer, $100,000 to cheat on two of her daughters' ACTs, and agreed to pay $200,000 to have one of the daughters admitted to University of Southern California as a "fake beach volleyball recruit," according to a sentencing memorandum.[1][2][5]
U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton told Janavs that her conduct was "just as onerous" as bribing a public official and that she needed prison to deter anyone else who "has the gall to use their resources" as she did.
He also ordered she serve two years of supervised release, 200 hours of community service and pay a $250,000 fine.[1][2]
The five-month term came short of the 21 months that federal prosecutors had requested.
They wanted an enhancement for what they called an abuse of trust, saying Janavs used her status as trustee of her daughters’ school, the Sage Hill School in Newport Beach, “to insulate herself from the fraud.”[6]
Janavs apologized to the judge, her friends and family for her "inexplicable behavior," and directed remarks to parents of students applying to college:
"I’m so very sorry I tried to make an unfair advantage for my children," Janavs said.
“There are truly no words to express the heartache and shame by my actions.
I have been shaken to the core.”[1]
Janavs paid Singer $50,000 in 2017 to cheat on her older daughter's ACT exam, according to the memorandum.
A co-conspirator corrected the daughter's answers when she took the test at a high school in West Hollywood, California. [2]
In February 2019, Janavs paid Singer $50,000 to cheat on a second daughter's ACT exam, the memo said.[2]
She also agreed in 2018 to pay $200,000 to get her older daughter into USC as a purported beach volleyball recruit.
As part of that agreement, Janavs made a $50,000 payment to the USC Women's Volleyball from her family's charitable foundation account, but she was arrested before she made the full payment, according to the US Attorney's Office.[2]