LAKE CHARLES - A former bookkeeper for a Louisiana company has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for stealing more than $4 million in 10 years.

  

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Lake Charles says 52-year-old Elizabeth Istre was sentenced Friday to 87 months on three counts of wire fraud. She was convicted in federal court in May.

  

Istre was indicted in 2016 for theft from LM Daigle Oil Distributors, a family-owned company in Sulphur.

  

Prosecutors said in a news release she began writing fraudulent checks payable to herself and her husband from the company's bank account soon after starting work in 2004.

  

Prosecutors said fluctuations in the oil and gas industry helped her conceal the theft of money that was used for cars, travel, property and other expenses.