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A former administrator at the University of California, San Francisco, was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution for committing wire fraud.

Her sentence was publicized in a news release Tuesday by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The administrator, Sandra Eileen Le, served as academic program officer for UCSF’s School of Nursing’s post-master’s and special studies certificate programs. Le allegedly told students to make out their tuition checks to her or to a merchandiser she purchased from or to leave the payee line blank. She deposited checks into her personal account or joint accounts shared with associates and spent the money on luxury items from that merchandiser and other personal expenses, including gambling and home improvement. She reportedly gave false payment and enrollment records to the university.

An investigation, involving interviews with dozens of students and a look at her bank accounts, began in 2019. She was indicted in 2021 and pleaded guilty in 2023. Senior U.S. district judge William H. Orrick ordered Le to surrender for her prison term by May 10 and pay at least $1,536,089 in restitution.