Former Nixon Peabody securities partner David Tamman was sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison for his role in a $22 million Ponzi scheme.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez said he was sympathetic to the “out of whack” sentencing guidelines, and acknowledged that Tamman did not benefit financially from the scheme. Still, he imposed a sentence much closer to the federal government’s requested eight years than a request by Tamman’s lawyers for three years and one month.