PHOENIX (AP) — A former Arizona politician in prison for running an illegal adoption scheme in three states involving women from the Marshall Islands has lost an appeal of one of his sentences.

Monday, The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal upheld a six-year sentence and $100,000 fine given in Arkansas to Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as metro Phoenix’s assessor for six years and also worked as an adoption attorney.

Prosecutors have said Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to come to the U.S. to give up their babies in at least 70 adoptions cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas. Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003.

In all, Petersen was sentenced to serve 11 years in prison in Arizona and Arkansas. Additionally, he was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison for a conviction in Utah, where a parole board ultimately decides how long a person serves. The Utah punishment will be served at the same time as his other sentences.

The appeals court rejected the argument that Petersen’s sentence, which was two years longer than sentencing guidelines had recommended, was unreasonable and said the sentencing judge made it clear why he considered Petersen to be unique from others who had received shorter punishments for similar offenses in other cases.