Sabatini, a 39-year-old Kaua'i accountant and the daughter of Gary Rodrigues, the former state director of the 12,000-member United Public Workers, was allowed to remain free while the case is appealed. U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who levied the sentence this morning, said the appeal process could take nearly two years.

Sabatini was convicted of 95 criminal counts in November 2002. She was found guilty of mail fraud resulting from her father's embezzlement of union money.

The elder Rodrigues was convicted of engineering a scheme that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies owned by Sabatini for consulting work that prosecutors said was never done.

Gary Rodrigues was sentenced in October to five years in federal prison. He is free pending his appeal.

Any prison time for Sabatini will be followed by three years of supervised release, Ezra ordered. She also must join her father in paying $377,503.63 in restitution to the UPW.

During the hearing, Ezra spoke often about the union leader, noting several times that it was a tragedy for a father to involve his daughter in a crime.

"I think, on a human level, it's a very sad case," Ezra said.

When defense attorney Victor Bakke argued that his client played a minor role, Ezra said Gary Rodrigues may have "masterminded" the scheme, but Sabatini was "the lynch pin."

Ezra said Sabatini was well-aware of what was happening and "took huge amounts of money."

"She's not Little Bo Peep here," Ezra said. "She was an active participant — beyond a reasonable doubt."

Sabatini sat quietly during the sentencing and did not address the court. She left the courtroom in tears and would make no comment. Her father did not attend.

The prosecution said during the trial last year that Gary Rodrigues negotiated medical and dental insurance plans on behalf of UPW members and got the insurance providers to agree to refund a percentage of the premiums paid to the union so that it could hire a consultant to evaluate the plans.

But the union boss never told union members or the UPW's board of directors that the first to receive a portion of the consulting fees was his ex-girlfriend's stepfather and that the fees later were funneled to two companies owned by Sabatini, the prosecution argued.

Prosecutors claimed that Sabatini received hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultant fees for doing little or no work and channeled some of the money back to Rodrigues and other members of his family.

Rodrigues' lawyer argued during the trial that it was not a crime for the union leader to hire his daughter as a consultant or to fail to tell that to union members or its board of directors.