GENEVA,  (Reuters) – The woman who killed banker  Edouard Stern, a banking scion and one of France’s richest men,  after sado-masochistic sex and an argument over $1 million was  sentenced yesterday to 8-1/2 years in prison for murder.

Cecile Brossard, 40, has served four years in preventive  custody since confessing to shooting dead her long-time lover in  a crime that rocked Geneva’s staid financial circles.

“The court sentences Cecile Brossard to eight years and six  months in prison for murder,” Judge Alessandra Cambi said.

Brossard’s defence team said it was “virtually certain” it  would not appeal the sentencing that followed a one-week trial  that revealed intimate details of the couple’s tumultuous  relationship. Under Swiss law, she could be granted conditional  release in 17 months, at the end of 2010.