Keleher, who served as Puerto Rico鈥檚 top education official from January 2017 until April 2019, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud, both felonies. Following her prison term, the once-rising education star will serve a year under monitored house arrest and was ordered to pay a $21,000 fine.聽

Her sentencing marks the end of a yearslong, high-profile criminal probe that took multiple twists and turns since her initial arrest in 2019. In the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors earlier this year, Keleher admitted to honest services fraud conspiracy when she signed a letter giving a company permission to widen a street onto public school property in exchange for her renting an upscale apartment from June to December 2018 for just $1. As part of a deal with a San Juan real estate company, she received a $12,000 incentive to purchase a two-bedroom apartment in the luxury building for $295,000.聽

She also admitted to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for 鈥渉aving agreed with others to devise a scheme鈥� that allowed a company to subcontract education department work to a 2016 gubernatorial candidate鈥檚 campaign manager. The action violated a contract which said the work couldn鈥檛 be subcontracted.

Appearing in court remotely because of the pandemic, 47-year-old Keleher offered an apology to the people of Puerto Rico 鈥渇or the pain and heartache any of the actions that I took while serving as secretary have caused.鈥澛�

聽鈥淭he children of Puerto Rico are the smartest and most capable of any in the world, and they deserve an education system far better than the one they have,鈥� she said as she audibly struggled to hold back tears. 鈥淚 hope, now that I鈥檝e pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges, that attention can be refocused to the importance of ensuring that Puerto Rico鈥檚 youth have access to the resources and learning opportunities that they so rightly deserve and the future of the island depends on.鈥澛�

Keleher鈥檚 arrest came three months after her resignation as education secretary, a position that netted her a $250,000-a-year salary, but was marked by significant controversy. She led the school system during the administration of former Gov. Ricardo Rossell贸, after his crude group-chat messages were leaked, prompting public outcry and widespread protests on the island.聽

Keleher took the helm of Puerto Rico鈥檚 education department less than a year before its public schools were shuttered in September 2017 by Hurricane Maria. Keleher arrived with ambitions to reform Puerto Rico鈥檚 lackluster education system and, after the storm devastated schools across the island, she closed hundreds of schools permanently and ushered in its first charter schools and a private school voucher program. Those decisions and others put her in the center of fierce backlash.聽

Keleher and five others were first indicted in 2019 and accused of conspiring to illegally direct millions of dollars in federal funds to contractors who had personal ties to the defendants. About six months later, in January 2020, she faced a second indictment for allegations surrounding the luxury apartment building. Then, an August 2020 superseding indictment replaced the initial charges and accused Keleher of helping a firm led by a 鈥渃lose friend鈥� secure an education department contract by disclosing confidential government documents, including the names and other personnel information of more than 6,000 Puerto Rico school employees. Keleher had initially pleaded not guilty.聽

During Friday鈥檚 sentencing hearing at the U.S. District Court in San Juan, Keleher鈥檚 attorney Maria Dominguez requested that she serve her sentence at a federal prison for female inmates in either Alderson, West Virginia, or Danbury, Connecticut. The billionaire mogul Martha Stewart at the Alderson prison camp. , the Netflix series, is based on a memoir by Piper Kerman, who spent a year in the Danbury prison.聽

Keleher鈥檚 conviction comes as federal officials seek to improve a public school system that has struggled for decades. In September, the U.S. Department of Education to assist local education leaders in several areas, including financial management. In March, Puerto Rico was in federal funds to help its schools recover from the pandemic.

Enrollment in Puerto Rico鈥檚 schools was declining even before Hurricane Maria, but the crippling storm exacerbated an outward migration to states like Florida and Massachusetts. Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico鈥檚 schools served roughly 350,000 students, than it does today.聽

Prior to her arrest, Keleher consistently portrayed herself as a maligned crusader against widespread corruption within an entrenched bureaucracy. During a forceful 2019 speech at a Yale University Education conference, she suggested that she became a victim.聽

鈥淲ho you knew determined what job you had, irrespective of your experience or your capacity to perform,鈥� she told a packed ballroom. 鈥淸Ending that practice] won me armies of people that literally would have been happy to take my head off.鈥澛�

She made similarly forceful statements on Friday after Hon. Pedro Delgado-Hernandez found her guilty. A gag order lifted Friday had previously prohibited Keleher, who has been staying with her parents outside Philadelphia, and her attorneys from discussing the allegations against her.聽

鈥淭he origins of my case have to do with the dysfunction of Puerto Rico鈥檚 Department of Education and political powers that desire to maintain the status quo,鈥� she said in a statement provided to 蜜桃影视, adding that she ultimately was not convicted on any of the initial charges filed against her in July 2019. 鈥淭here is no allegation I took money away from students, teachers or schools. I would never want to do anything to deprive any child, or any person, of their rights to education.鈥�