SACRAMENTO >> A former Stanford University employee and her brother were sentenced to more than a year in prison for a scheme to steal and sell more than $4 million worth of Apple MacBooks from the school.

Patricia Castaneda, 38, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and her brother Eric Castaneda, 37, was sentenced to 18 months by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, according to federal authorities in a news release. Patricia Castaneda to pay more than $4 million in restitution, and Eric Castaneda was ordered to pay more than $2 million.

The Stanford Review, the university’s student-run newspaper, reported in February that Patricia Castaneda managed the technology budget for the department’s dean, and called on university officials to explain how hundreds of laptops could turn up missing before anyone noticed.

According to court documents, Patricia Castaneda worked in the School of Humanities and Sciences and ordered MacBooks for university faculty and staff. Prosecutors said Patricia Castaneda began stealing MacBooks in 2009 and 2010 and ordered and sold them for cash through someone she met on Craigslist. In February 2016, she started giving the Macbooks to Eric Castaneda to sell to Philip James, who resold and shipped the laptops from Folsom to other buyers.

Over more than 10 years, Patricia Castaneda stole more than $4 million worth of laptops, including the 800 stolen MacBooks, worth about $2.3 million, that her brother sold to James.

Patricia Castaneda pleaded guilty last month to a charge of federal program theft and Eric Castaneda pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines.

Folsom resident James, 35, pleaded guilty last week to transporting stolen property interstate, according to authorities. James bought almost 1,000 stolen laptops from October 2015 through June 2020 and resold and shipped them from Folsom to buyers outside of California, according to court documents.

James also bought laptops from University of California, Berkeley employee Jonas Jarut, 41, of Emeryville, who pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to transport stolen property interstate, according to officials. Jarut worked as a database administrator in the Graduate School of Education and bought laptops for the graduate school, according to court documents. In March 2019, Jarut began stealing laptops and selling them to James. Jarut stole at least 90 laptops, costing more than $200,000 to the graduate school.

James agreed to pay $2.28 million in restitution to Stanford and more than $209,000 to Berkeley. James is scheduled to be sentenced July 25.