A Delaware lawyer has received a lengthy prison sentence for his role in a payday lending scheme that involved lying about his client’s connections with Native American tribes in order to dupe customers into paying interest rates far above the legal limit.

U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 25 sentenced Wilmington attorney Wheeler Neff to eight years in prison for his alleged role in the lending scheme, which aimed to collect more than $490 million from illegal payday loans. The sentence included a $50,000 fine and an order for Neff to forfeit more than $356,000 in criminal proceeds.