Attorney sentenced for aiding fake priest’s fraud

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A northern Indiana attorney has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for helping a man posing as a priest scam money from nearly 100 people.

A federal judge on Tuesday also ordered Thomas Lewis of South Bend to pay $1.5 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty in August to aiding and abetting mail and wire fraud.

He was accused of helping Byron Canada of Berrien Springs, Mich., bilk money over a seven-year period.

The South Bend Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/sFt7CT ) Lewis told the judge that he is haunted by the suffering he caused.

Canada has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding real estate developers and churches of more than $2.7 million while posing as a priest associated with the University of Notre Dame.