After wrestling openly in court with “where to draw the [sentencing] balance,” a federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Municipal Credit Union CEO Kam Wong to five and a half years in prison for embezzling nearly $10 million from the credit union using a multi-faceted scheme.

The prison sentence was significantly less than what the judge had explained to a packed courtroom was the sentencing guidelines range of 97 to 121 months — or about 8 to 10 years. Still, the sentence also included a restitution order of $9.89 million and a forfeiture order of the same amount, even as the judge commented that it was unlikely Wong, 63, would ever be able to pay off the money.