A former director of an Arizona Islamic organization was sentenced to 14 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay $3.2-million in restitution Wednesday for swindling fellow members of the group in a bogus business deal, The Arizona Republic writes.

Authorities said Mohammad Reza Amin-Sobhani, also known as Robert Amini, used his position as a board member of the Al-Mahdi Benevolent Islamic Foundation of Arizona to convince others involved with the group to put millions of dollars into a sham firm he falsely portrayed as investing in commercial real estate and private-aircraft sales.