Druyun, 56, of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to violate conflict-of-interest rules by negotiating with Boeing for a job while overseeing Pentagon consideration of a $23 billion deal to provide 100 refueling tanker planes. She was hired by Boeing and then fired 10 months later for what the company called unethical conduct.

"She did this as a parting gift to Boeing and to ingratiate herself into Boeing," said federal prosecutor Robert Wiechering.

Even after her guilty plea, Druyun had maintained that her crime was merely a technical violation and that she had upheld the government's interests during the contract process.

But she later failed a lie-detector test and conceded that her conflict produced substantive benefits for Boeing, prosecutors said. She also admitted altered journals to cover up her story.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III sentenced Druyun to nine months in prison and seven months in a halfway house, less than the 16 months of prison time sought by prosecutors.

Druyun's attorney, John Dowd, said he was pleased with the sentence.

He acknowledged to the judge that Druyun had lied at first about the scope of her wrongdoing. "She had difficulty coming to grips with some matters" Dowd said. "But she did. She finally did."

The Defense Department is reviewing the refueling-tanker deal.

In court documents, Druyun admitted providing assistance to Boeing on other contracts as well. Among them were a $4 billion contract to provide upgrades to the Air Force's C-130 fleet. She admitted that Boeing gained an advantage because they were helping her daughter's boyfriend get a job, and that Boeing might not have received the contract on a level playing field.

She also said she helped Boeing obtain an inflated deal on a $100 million NATO AWACS contract in 2002, at the same time she successfully intervened to keep Boeing from firing her daughter, who worked for the company, for poor performance.