A former financial analyst for the Patent and Trademark Office has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for stealing more than $500,000 from a government account.

A former boyfriend who helped her received an identical sentence.

Thirty-nine-year old Karen L. Parish of Woodbridge pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria to embezzling roughly $534,000 over a seven-year period. She paid the money to accounts controlled by 50-year-old Michael H. Reid of Fort Washington, Maryland. The two would split the money.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of two years and three months.

Parish was also ordered to make restitution, but in court records she said the money has all been spent.

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