The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld a $350,000 restitution order against a lawyer who was convicted in a scheme to defraud his law firm and its clients.

Arobert Tonagbanua, a former shareholder in the Haddonfield, New Jersey, office of Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, pleaded guilty in 2014 to a scheme to pad his billings to the tune of $1 million by altering court complaints to add names of firm clients to already-filed asbestos injury suits. He altered documents in more than 100 asbestos injury cases from 2008-2012, then undertook representation of those clients, according to prosecutors.

Tonagbanua, who was sentenced in May 2016 to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman of the District of New Jersey, sought to reduce the $350,000 restitution order stemming from his guilty plea on one count of wire fraud. But the appeals court ruled Tuesday that Hillman properly rejected his petition. The appeals court said Tonagbanua waived the right to appeal when he entered his guilty plea, and the writ of error coram nobis he filed was encompassed in that waiver. The appeals court also said that Tonagbanua's claim about his lawyer, that he should have given closer examination to the amount of restitution imposed at sentencing, does not rise to the level of error required to obtain relief under a coram nobis petition, the appeals court said.