A Santa Monica-based lawyer who was a partner at the Nixon Peabody law firm has been sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for his role in a fraudulent investment scheme.

United States District Judge Phillip S. Gutierrez also ordered attorney David Tamman, 46, to pay a $2,500 fine. Authorities said Tamman obstructed two separate investigations into an investment scheme that stole $22 million. Gutierrez said that, apart from the magnitude of the fraud Tamman helped cover up, the substantial sentence was warranted by the fact that the defendant lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and then compounded the matter by lying during his trial in 2012. Gutierrez further indicated Tamman’s conduct was particularly troubling because he is a lawyer.

Following a trial last year, Tamman was found guilty of 10 counts that included obstruction of justice, altering records in a federal investigation, and being an accessory after the fact to the fraud scheme.

The evidence presented at the trial showed that Tamman conspired with John Farahi, who operated the Ponzi scheme, to obstruct an SEC investigation into the fraud scheme. Tamman, who was suspended from practicing law earlier this year by the California State Bar, served as outside counsel for Farahi’s investment company, Newpoint Investment Services.

Tamman altered documents that caused the National Association of Securities Dealers (now known as FINRA) to close an investigation in 2004, thereby enabling Farahi to continue perpetrating the scam for another five years. Farahi was sentenced in March to 10 years in federal prison for running the scheme. He operated the Beverly Hills-based New Point Financial Services, Inc.