A Tennessee man probably should have picked a groovier supervillain than Dr. Evil after fashioning himself after the iconic Austin Powers character in an attempt to extort $1 million by claiming he stole Mitt Romney's tax returns.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Michael Brown, but tossed out and remanded his four-year prison sentence for attempting to extort local branches of the Republican and Democratic parties, and a major accounting firm in 2012 by claiming he stole Romney's tax returns. Brown, of Tennessee, adopted the alias of “Dr. Evil” from the 1997 Mike Myers flick while executing his failed scheme.

Judge Jeffrey Sutton, who authored the Sixth Circuit's opinion, kept with that comparison.

“When criminal law cases imitate art, they do not always choose its highest form,” Sutton wrote. “In “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” Dr. Evil develops a plan to steal a nuclear warhead and to hold the world hostage for $1 million. This was not, Dr. Evil's deputy pointed out, all that much money for a 1990s global criminal enterprise. But it was enough for an anonymous extortionist in today's case, who apparently was familiar with the movie and who chose some features of it as signatures of his 2012 crime.”

While the details of the case are void of kitschy outfits, 1960s lingo or Elizabeth Hurley cameos, it is reminiscent of a big screen spy movie.

The Franklin, Tennessee, office of PricewaterhouseCoopers received an envelope containing a flash drive and letter from an anonymous sender in the summer of 2012. The sender claimed to have hacked into PwC's network and stolen tax returns belonging to the then-presidential candidate and his wife. The hacker threatened to release the returns unless paid a million dollars. Two similar envelopes containing letters and flash drives appeared at the Williamson County Republican and Democratic party offices days later.

An anonymous post appeared on the website Pastebin.com a week later, which outlined what was in the letters. That post was signed “Dr. Evil,” and was accompanied by an image of the character photoshopped on the lobby of PwC's Franklin office.

Pastebin is a website often used by hackers to brag about their exploits, and has been used by the group Anonymous. The website is also used to share legitimate text files and data.

An internal PwC investigation concluded their network was not compromised, and the Secret Service took over from there. They were able to link the post and flash drives to Brown using digital tools.

While Brown never actually stole Romney's returns, a jury did convict him of wire fraud and extortion. He was sentenced to four years in prison with $200,000 in restitution.

The Sixth Circuit upheld the 12-count conviction, but vacated and remanded his sentence, stating that the lower court mistakenly increased Brown's sentence.

The district court found that Brown had obstructed justice, which required an increased sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. The Sixth Circuit ruled Brown did not “significantly obstruct or impede the government's investigation,” so the enhanced sentence was not justified.

Brown's attorney, J. Alex Little of Bone McAllester Norton in Nashville and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville both declined to comment.

A Tennessee man probably should have picked a groovier supervillain than Dr. Evil after fashioning himself after the iconic Austin Powers character in an attempt to extort $1 million by claiming he stole Mitt Romney's tax returns.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Michael Brown, but tossed out and remanded his four-year prison sentence for attempting to extort local branches of the Republican and Democratic parties, and a major accounting firm in 2012 by claiming he stole Romney's tax returns. Brown, of Tennessee, adopted the alias of “Dr. Evil” from the 1997 Mike Myers flick while executing his failed scheme.

Judge Jeffrey Sutton, who authored the Sixth Circuit's opinion, kept with that comparison.

“When criminal law cases imitate art, they do not always choose its highest form,” Sutton wrote. “In “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” Dr. Evil develops a plan to steal a nuclear warhead and to hold the world hostage for $1 million. This was not, Dr. Evil's deputy pointed out, all that much money for a 1990s global criminal enterprise. But it was enough for an anonymous extortionist in today's case, who apparently was familiar with the movie and who chose some features of it as signatures of his 2012 crime.”

While the details of the case are void of kitschy outfits, 1960s lingo or Elizabeth Hurley cameos, it is reminiscent of a big screen spy movie.

The Franklin, Tennessee, office of PricewaterhouseCoopers received an envelope containing a flash drive and letter from an anonymous sender in the summer of 2012. The sender claimed to have hacked into PwC's network and stolen tax returns belonging to the then-presidential candidate and his wife. The hacker threatened to release the returns unless paid a million dollars. Two similar envelopes containing letters and flash drives appeared at the Williamson County Republican and Democratic party offices days later.

An anonymous post appeared on the website Pastebin.com a week later, which outlined what was in the letters. That post was signed “Dr. Evil,” and was accompanied by an image of the character photoshopped on the lobby of PwC's Franklin office.

Pastebin is a website often used by hackers to brag about their exploits, and has been used by the group Anonymous. The website is also used to share legitimate text files and data.

An internal PwC investigation concluded their network was not compromised, and the Secret Service took over from there. They were able to link the post and flash drives to Brown using digital tools.

While Brown never actually stole Romney's returns, a jury did convict him of wire fraud and extortion. He was sentenced to four years in prison with $200,000 in restitution.

The Sixth Circuit upheld the 12-count conviction, but vacated and remanded his sentence, stating that the lower court mistakenly increased Brown's sentence.

The district court found that Brown had obstructed justice, which required an increased sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. The Sixth Circuit ruled Brown did not “significantly obstruct or impede the government's investigation,” so the enhanced sentence was not justified.

Brown's attorney, J. Alex Little of Bone McAllester Norton in Nashville and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville both declined to comment.