HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) - The former chief financial officer at General Re Corp. was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in federal prison for her role in an accounting fraud scandal that artificially propped up the stock price of insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG)

Elizabeth Monrad, 52, of New Canaan was also fined $250,000 for her role in the case, which authorities say cost AIG shareholders more than $500 million.

Judge Christopher Droney said Ms Monrad had plenty of opportunity to stop the deal and noted that she was involved from the beginning.

"She was the financial expert for General Re in this transaction," Mr. Droney said. "A message must be sent to the business and financial communities that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated."

Ms Monrad begged Mr. Droney for a lenient sentence, and several family members and friends testified about her community involvement and generosity in sponsoring needy children in Appalachia and Sri Lanka.

"This conviction is at odds with the professional life and work ethic I've tried to live," she told Mr. Droney.

Federal prosecutors say New York-based AIG paid Stamford-based Gen Re in a secret deal to take out reinsurance policies with AIG in 2000 and 2001. They say the scheme propped up AIG's stock prices and inflated reserves by $500 million with the goal of quelling criticism by analysts and easing concerns by investors.

Reinsurance policies are purchased by insurance companies to completely or partly insure the risk they have assumed for their customers.

Ms Monrad was Gen Re's chief financial officer from June 2000 to July 2003. She was convicted last year of conspiracy, securities fraud, making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission and mail fraud after a five-week trial.

She had faced up to 210 years in prison and a fine of up to $46 million.

Defendants in the case have said in court papers that there was no link between the eight-year-old deal and AIG's recent financial troubles that sparked a federal financial-rescue package.

Ms Monrad was the fourth executive to be sentenced. Former General Re chief executive Ronald Ferguson was sentenced in December to two years in prison and fined $200,000, while former AIG vice-president Christian Milton was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $200,000. Last month, Gen Re's former senior vice president, Christopher Garand, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $150,000.

Still to be sentenced is Robert Graham, a former General Re senior vice president.

General Re is part of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which is led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett of Omaha, Nebraska.