YOUNGSTOWN — The Board of Commissioners of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection paid out $9,750 to five former clients of now imprisoned and suspended lawyer Robert J. Rohrbaugh II as a result of his “failure to provide or complete the services requested,” the board announced in a news release Tuesday.

The fund was created in 1985 to reimburse losses to legal clients as a result of the dishonest conduct of a licensed Ohio attorney, according to the Ohio Supreme Court’s website.

Details on why the clients did not receive the services requested were not provided and not available on the court’s website.

Rohrbaugh, 49, had a law office on Belmont Avenue in Liberty and lived in the Youngstown area at the time he and two other men were indicted in federal court on fraud charges. They were accused of cashing and using a $1.3 million IRS check co-defendant Brandon Mace obtained fraudulently while in federal prison.

U.S. court Judge Benita Y. Pearson presided over two trials in Youngstown involving Rohrbaugh. In the second one, he was convicted in January 2023 of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, aiding and abetting theft of government property, aiding and abetting false claims against the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison in June, though he has since asked for that sentence to be reduced. No decision has been reached yet.

In May, his attorneys asked the judge to grant Rohrbaugh four months to report to complete the closing of his law office, the sale of one house and purchase of a smaller one, and to assist his son in gaining admission to one of several colleges.

The judge granted him one month, until June. Rohrbaugh was allowed to self-report to prison. It is unclear when that happened.

In January, the Mahoning County Bar Association filed a complaint against Rohrbaugh with the Ohio Supreme Court Board of Professional Conduct, asking for Rohrbaugh to be disciplined as a result of his convictions.

The Ohio Supreme Court issued an interim felony suspension of Rohrbaugh’s law license Feb. 15, 2023.

The bar association alleged Rohrbaugh failed to act in the best interest of the company Speed Werks LLC, which he represented in the fraud, and “failed to withdraw from representation of a client when the representation would result in a violation of the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct or other law.”

Rohrbaugh engaged in misconduct by committing an “illegal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty and trustworthiness.” And he engaged in misconduct “involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” the filing states.

A hearing before the board on the complaint is set for 8:30 a.m. June 21 at the 11th District Court of Appeals in Warren.

Rohrbaugh is housed in the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in Morgantown, West Virginia, and has a release date of March 13, 2027, according to U.S. Bureau of Prison records.