A little less than two weeks after a U.S. District Judge sentenced Michael Scanlon to 20 months in federal prison and 300 hours of community service, the former lobbyist filed an appeal. Scanlon was a major player in the wide-ranging Jack Abramoff scandal, which defrauded several Native American tribes of tens of millions of dollars.
Scanlon is appealing on the basis of the “honest services” law, frequently used in corruption cases, which was weakened by the Supreme Court after he entered his guilty plea.
A federal judge had ordered that Michael Scanlon should serve his 20-month sentence in the lowest security prison facility at the Bureau of Prisons facility in Pensacola, Florida.
He was also barred from from traveling to his luxury estate in St. Barts.
Scanlon continues to dispute whether he must pony up more than $20 million in compensation to several Indian tribes, as well as Abramoff’s former lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig.
