ALBUQUERQUE (CN) - A former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in federal prison for conspiring with her physicist husband to sell nuclear weapons secrets to Venezuela.
Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 71, of Los Alamos, was sentenced for conspiring to violate the Atomic Energy Act.
She was accused of making false statements to FBI agents and trying to sell the data to what she believed was a Venezuelan government official.
Mascheroni pleaded guilty in June 2013 to one count of conspiracy and seven counts of making false statements. She pleaded guilty to a separate information accusing her of conspiring to communicate restricted data.
Her husband, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 79, pleaded guilty to similar charges and is in federal custody pending sentencing. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina.
Prosecutors said Pedro Mascheroni worked as a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist from 1979 to 1998 and held security clearances that gave him access to restricted data.
Marjorie Maschernio worked at the lab from 1981 to 2010 as a technical writer and editor and held similar security clearances. Both were indicted in September 2010.
Under the Atomic Energy Act, "restricted data" is classified information about the design, manufacture or use of atomic weapons; the production of special nuclear material; or the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy.
Los Alamos National Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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