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Albert Hessberg III, a former trusts and estates partner at Barclay Damon who admitted to defrauding his firm and clients of over $2 million, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison Nov. 1 after saying that he was driven to steal because he wasn't making enough money.

U.S. District Judge Mae D'Agostino in Albany said at sentencing that Hessberg had acted in a "ruthless and predatory fashion" in his decade-plus scheme to scam his clients and his firm out of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, which prosecuted the case.

In sentencing submissions, Hessberg and his advocates have said he diverted fees from his firm and began taking money entrusted to him by clients because of the pressure to give his family the same kind of life he had, including paying for his kids' college and a wedding. His sister said in a letter to the court that his job brought in about $90,000, although the time period wasn't stated; the Albany Times-Union reported that D'Agostino said he made $300,000 to $400,000 per year, however.

U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquith called Hessberg's acts, to which he pleaded guilty, "staggering."

"Hessberg did not care about his clients, their heirs, or his oath to faithfully discharge his obligations as an attorney when he stole $2 million," Jaquith said in a statement. "Lawyers must be held to society's highest standards, and we will not waver in our efforts to hold them accountable when they commit serious crimes."

Albert Hessberg.

Barclay Damon has said that it was "shocked" to learn of Hessberg's deception. The firm said it fired him and reported his misconduct to authorities last year. Hessberg has said he borrowed $1.7 million to pay his debt to his firm and helped sort through client files in an effort to make things right.

The sentence came in below the federal guidelines range of 78 to 97 months behind bars. Hessberg's sentence also included two years of supervised release and more than $2.6 million in restitution.

Court notes indicate that Hessberg, a resident of the Albany suburb of Slingerlands, was taken into custody after his sentencing. The judge recommended that he be imprisoned as close to Albany as possible. His attorney E. Stewart Jones couldn't immediately be reached for comment Monday morning.