A Pleasanton woman was sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison for netting $5.6million while running a fake university that was a front for foreign students seeking to establish U.S. immigration status.

Susan Su, 44, who operated Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, was ordered Friday by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco to serve 198 months behind bars, forfeit the $5.6million and pay more than $904,000 in restitution.

A jury found Su guilty in March of wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, use of a false document, making false statements to a government agency, alien harboring, unauthorized access to a government computer and money laundering.

Su accepted money from foreigners, mostly from India, while purporting to offer “Christian higher education,” federal prosecutors said. She used the proceeds to buy commercial real estate, a Mercedes-Benz and numerous homes, including a mansion at the Ruby Hill Golf Club.

Su obtained visa documents “without regard to the students’ academic qualifications or intent to pursue a course of study required to maintain a lawful immigration status,” authorities said.

Prosecutors said Indian nationals paid $2,700 a semester in tuition for visa-related documents that allowed them to live and work in the country on student immigration status.

Three purported university professors testified that they never allowed Su to use their credentials in connection with the institution, and many employees told the jury that the university “had no requirements for admission or graduation,” prosecutors said, adding, “Su routinely instructed her staff to fabricate fraudulent transcripts.”

The alien-harboring conviction stemmed in part from evidence showing Su had one of her student employees paint her house and move furniture, authorities said.