A former administrator of a Los Angeles law firm was sentenced Monday to 60 months in federal prison for embezzling more than $3.3 million from her employer.

Esterlina Santos, 53, of Los Angeles, was also ordered by United States District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell to pay $3.3 million in restitution to her former employer and $781,109 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Santos pleaded guilty in June to one count of mail fraud and one count of submitting a false tax return.

According to court documents, from 2004 to August 2010, Santos fraudulently obtained approximately $3.3 million from the Law Offices of Robert Smylie and Associates (RSA). While serving as the firm administrator for RSA, Santos used QuickBooks software to generate checks from RSA’s operating account to pay for her personal credit accounts with American Express, Bank of America and Capital One.

After Santos generated checks from RSA’s operating account and mailed them to pay her personal credit accounts, she used QuickBooks to alter the checks to falsely reflect that they were paid to RSA’s vendors for services purportedly provided.

Santos admitted that she received approximately $2.4 million of income she failed to report to the IRS from 2007 through 2010. The defendant was ordered to begin serving her sentence on Jan. 4.

The investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.