Sherri Papini sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her own kidnapping in 2016
CBSN
A Northern California woman who admitted to faking her own kidnapping has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.
Sherri Papini, 40, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of mail fraud and making false statements to federal agents about circumstances surrounding the imagined kidnapping, in a deal that lowered her maximum possible sentence from 25 years and included more than $300,000 in restitution payments.
The money accounted for material losses to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation — as both law enforcement agencies were involved searching for Papini when she seemingly disappeared, and later, the "abductors" she claimed held her captive — in addition to the California Victim Compensation Board and Social Security Administration, according to the Department of Justice. Papini collected nearly $130,000 in disability payments since the kidnapping hoax and has received psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder totaling at least $30,000 in value.
