Maxwell was sentenced Tuesday ... learning her fate nearly 7 months after being found guilty by a New York jury. She'll also have to pay a $750k fine and 5 years of supervised release once she's out.

As we reported ... Maxwell was convicted back in December on 5 of the 6 counts she faced in her sex trafficking trial, including a conviction on one count of sex trafficking of a minor.

Maxwell stood accused of soliciting and grooming minors for sex crimes and abuse at the hands of Epstein between 1994 and 2004.

During her trial, 4 women testified Epstein sexually abused them when they were all under the age of 18 ... and they also told the jury Maxwell recruited and groomed girls for Epstein to abuse and sometimes even joined in on the abuse.

At the sentencing, a few of Maxwell's victims spoke. One of the victims, Annie Farmer, said "Maxwell had many opportunities to come clean, but instead continued to make choices that caused more harm. She chose to lie about her behavior, causing additional harm to all of those she victimized."

Maxwell addressed the court as well and apologized to the victims. She said, “Your honor, it is hard for me to address the court after listening to the pain and anguish expressed in the statements made here today. The terrible impact on the lives of so many women is difficult to hear and even more difficult to absorb, both in its scale and in its extent."

"I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life and fooled all of those in his orbit. Jeff Epstein should have been here before all of you. He should have stood before you in 2005, again in 2009 and again in 2019. ... All the many times he was accused, charged and prosecuted. but today it is not about Jeffrey Epstein ultimately. To you, all the victims ... I am sorry for the pain that you experienced."

Maxwell pled not guilty to all the charges and her legal team insists she's been made a scapegoat for Epstein ... who committed suicide in custody in 2019 while awaiting his own trial.