"It appears to me that I was convicted before I walked in here," Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, 53, told U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige Jr. before his sentencing. "Which is it? Am I a godly man or a godfather? That is the question we have never been able to address in this court."

Bhaktipada was convicted March 29 on six counts of mail fraud and three counts of racketeering, including conspiring to kill a fringe member of his New Vrindaban community, about 85 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.