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A National Security Agency contractor has been slapped with a 13-month sentence in federal prison after she was found guilty of bilking the government for hundreds of hours of in-person work she never performed.

Jacky McComber was also ordered to pay back $176,913 to the government.

Her case became a cause celebre at the intersection of the contracting and intelligence worlds, given the brazenness of the allegations and some of the vitriol involved.

Prosecutors said McCombers company, InfoTeK, billed the government for more than 2,600 hours of work on a contract that, because of the top-secret nature of the NSA, had to be done in person.

But over a 19-month period, she wasnt actually at the NSA for 90% of those hours, prosecutors said.

Even when she claimed to be working remotely, she was often AWOL. One time, when she billed the government for an eight-hour day, she was playing in a charity golf tournament. Another time, she attended her high school reunion. And another time, she was vacationing in Ocean City, Maryland.

At trial, she was convicted of fraud and of lying to cover it up.

After her conviction, she yelled at prosecutors to rot in hell, the government said.

McComber cast herself as a pioneering entrepreneur, a woman in a hard-to-crack field who was laid low by an angry ex-husband and lingering trauma from her childhood.

Her lawyers had asked the judge for leniency, saying her crimes werent severe.

There were no individual victims. It did not cause any person to suffer substantial personal hardship, the defense lawyers said.

They also argued that McComber had suffered in the wake of the case, losing her business and future opportunities. And they said the deterrent effect of the case has already been carried out, given its notoriety in the contracting world.

Ms. McComber is 51 years old, and this criminal conviction is her first. Her conviction precludes her from future contracting with the government, making it highly unlikely that she will be able to attain another position that will allow her to commit a similar crime, the defense lawyers said.

They had suggested the judge give her probation with perhaps the first three months served in home confinement.

Prosecutors had asked for at least 51 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander delivered the 13-month sentence.

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NSA contractor bilked government for hundreds of hours she never worked - Washington Times