Paul A. Pysczynski pleaded no contest to counts of grand theft and practicing law while his license was suspended involving four criminal cases.
Circuit Judge Charles Roberts also sentenced Pysczynski to five years of probation and, as part of the plea agreement, barred him from practicing law again.
Pysczynski, 46, has already paid back $140,000 to his victims and will return $4,000 more, said his attorney, Derek Byrd.
Mr. Pysczynski always admitted that he made a mistake and has paid restitution to make things right, Byrd said after the sentencing.
But his sentence of 35.625 months, at the low end of the sentencing scale, angered Shirley Rowan, one of his victims.
He took my whole life. He only gets three years, said Rowan, a local accountant and real estate broker who had retained Pysczynski for credit repair.
The now-disbarred lawyer, wearing a purple golf shirt and casual slacks, was taken into custody after the sentencing hearing.
Pysczynski is one of a number of attorneys in Florida and nationwide who carved a post-recession living by offering foreclosure and bankruptcy services to struggling homeowners.
But some also operated bogus financial rescue scams, either keeping client funds and doing nothing or convincing anxious homeowners to transfer deeds to their properties into trusts and LLCs, and then file for bankruptcy.
Pysczynski was the subject, along with others, of the Herald-Tribunes October 2014 series Selling Hope, which found that foreclosure rescue fraud schemes have cost Americans more than $500 million and that Florida ranks second in the nation for such fraud.
Assistant State Attorney Daniel Yuter previously called Pysczynskis actions an illegal foreclosure rescue and bankruptcy scheme.
He robbed Peter to pay Paul
Byrd said Pysczynski took money from clients to support a sports gambling addiction.
He robbed Peter to pay Paul, Byrd said. He got in over his head.
Pysczynskis family in Missouri provided the money to pay back his victims, Byrd said.
Rowan said she hired Pysczynski to help her negotiate a settlement of credit card debts. She gave him $11,600 to pay her creditors, but he paid just $1,000 to one creditor and pocketed the rest.
She said she has gotten that money back, and is supposed to receive another $3,000 to help cover her related costs.
I filed bankruptcy because of him, she said. An attorney is supposed to be the most upstanding person there is.
The Florida Bar suspended Pysczynskis license to practice law in 2012 because of a legal education deficiency, but he continued to take on clients.
The Bar said he used a forged letter to convince Daniel J. Howard, a Sarasota podiatrist, to give him $25,000 to pay off Howards consolidated student loans. Instead, Pysczynski kept the money for his own use.
In another case, Mark and Jamie Lotz of Sarasota paid Pysczynski $48,500 for a loan modification to avoid foreclosure. But Pysczynski, a childhood friend of Mark Lotz, kept the money.
The Florida Bar, reviewing these and other cases, disbarred Pysczynski last November.
On Tuesday, Pysczynski pleaded no contest but was adjudicated guilty on two counts of grand theft and four counts of practicing law while suspended.
Byrd said prosecutors plan to file two additional similar cases against Pysczynski. He will plead to both and his state prison sentence will run concurrently.