A federal judge sentenced former Qantas cargo executive Bruce McCaffrey this week to six months in prison, cutting his jail time by two months after hearing his family and attorneys argue that the airline had used the ailing McCaffrey "as a scapegoat."

McCaffrey appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for the formal sentencing under a plea agreement in which he had accepted six months in prison and a $20,000 fine for taking part in the price-fixing conspiracy that has enveloped the worldwide air cargo industry.

U.S. District Judge John Bates cut the sentence from eight months to six months, citing McCaffrey's cooperation with investigators.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Schlech told the judge McCaffrey had given "a wealth of information regarding specific meetings and discussions with competitors about surcharges, rates and other competitively sensitive business information."

Jeffrey A. Udell, an attorney for McCaffrey, said he expects to hear from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in the next two weeks about where and when he is to report to prison.

Udell wrote in papers filed with the court that the 65-year-old McCaffrey is in frail health with "chronic kidney failure" and that doctors said he will need a kidney transplant in the next 12 months.

McCaffrey's family said in papers filed with the court on his sentencing that the 28-year Qantas veteran was being "used as a scapegoat" by airline executives and that McCaffrey was carrying out directions from the Qantas head office. "He was not in the position to set policy, only to implement it," his brother Neil McCaffrey wrote to the judge.

Lawyers for McCaffrey made the same point in their pre-sentencing filings with the court.

"(T)he plan to engage in price-fixing emanated from (Qantas headquarters), which gave direction to Qantas managers around the world, including Mr. McCaffrey, to coordinate certain aspects of pricing with their colleagues at other airlines," his attorneys wrote.