DANVILLE – A Danville attorney convicted in a federal tax fraud case has been disbarred on consent.

The Illinois Supreme Court approved an order for disbarment for John "Pat" Wolgamot on March 16, said Peter Rotskoff, chief of litigation and professional education with the state Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission.

Wolgamot, 65, of Danville pleaded guilty on Aug. 21, 2008, in federal court in Urbana to one count of aiding the filing of a false tax return. The following May, he was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison.

As a result of the conviction, the state Supreme Court ordered an indefinite suspension of Wolgamot's license on Aug. 5.

Wolgamot was licensed to practice on Oct. 25, 1974.

Wolgamot could have requested a hearing to determine the status of his license upon completion of the criminal process. In that case, the state Supreme Court still could have disbarred him or suspended or censured his license, which has been inactive since Dec. 31, 2008.

However, he and the ARDC chose to resolve the matter through a "discipline on consent" and submitted that agreement to the state Supreme Court for approval.

Wolgamot was released from a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., earlier this month. He currently is in a community-based corrections program in Chicago and is scheduled to be released in May.

Rotskoff said Wolgamot could petition for reinstatement to the bar after three years.

"It's not automatic," he said, adding the decision is up to the state Supreme Court. "The vast majority of attorneys who are disbarred are never reinstated."

Wolgamot had been a longtime partner with Acton & Snyder in Danville, as well as the Danville City Council's corporation counsel.

He was indicted May 2, 2007, along with two former Danville-area businessmen, Brian Wasson and Joseph Starns. The three were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of tax-fraud conspiracy and aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns.

Starns died in 2007.

According to the U.S. sttorney's office, Wasson and Starns created a company in 1997 and prompted a fraudulent tax scheme to various taxpayers, concealing taxpayer assets and income from the Internal Revenue Service to illegally reduce or eliminate tax liability, helping 12 taxpayers avoid paying a collective $6 million in taxes.