SAVANNAH -- A federal appeals court has affirmed disbarred Savannah attorney Benjamin Eichholz's 21-month federal prison sentence for obstructing a federal investigation into mishandling of pension and retirement funds in his law firm.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday ruled U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. properly increased the sentence based on an abuse-of-trust enhancement.
"We affirm Eichholz's 21-month sentence," the three-judge court ruled.
Eichholz, 59, pleaded guilty to a single count of a 77-count indictment in the case, then asked that Moore limit his sentence to 10 months.
But Moore added time based on the argument Eichholz abused his trust in handling the accounts and ordered the defendant to prison for 21 months with $50,117 in restitution to victims of the actions.
The appeal challenged only the sentence term, not the restitution award to plan participants.
The judge gave Eichholz the option of dropping his guilty plea before he was sentenced, but Eichholz said he did not want to do so, the appellate court ruled.
Eichholz is serving his sentence at a minimum-security camp at the Federal Correctional Institution at Estill, S.C.
I can agree on that... I will call the Hawk brothers if ever needed.
Robert Vaughn's endorsement income just dropped 50%...
It seems to me, that the federal judge should stop his expensive TV ads, and use that money for restitution.
White collar crime =Mininium security country club. If your were to rob someone on the street of this sum by threats you would certainly get a longer sentence than 21 months at a real prison.
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