Joshua Gayl, the former general counsel of VO Financial Corp., was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for conspiring to obstruct justice in a federal criminal case against his boss.

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman of the District of New Jersey also sentenced Gayl to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine. But it could have been worse. The obstruction charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Gayl's attorney, Ellen Brotman, founder of Brotman Law in Philadelphia, said: “I was disappointed that the judge felt incarceration was necessary for an adequate punishment.” Brotman had argued for Gayl to be sentenced to home detention.