Two leaders of a bankrupt Bucks County technology company have been ordered to spend years in prison and pay millions in restitution for their entanglement in an Internet scheme officials say bilked more than 46,000 people out of $15 million.

Bernard Roemmele was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a Florida courtroom Friday, officials said, while Steve Hein was given a four-year sentence. Federal Judge James I. Cohn of Fort Lauderdale also ordered the two men to pay $14.8 million in restitution.

Roemmele and Hein ran a Richland Township based business called CitX, which officials say worked with a Florida company on a pyramid scheme that operated from 1999 to 2001. Roemmele, 47, was CitX's founder and chief executive officer; Hein, 53, was its vice president.

Customers were promised access to a pornography-free online store to trade in goods and services in exchange for a $295 fee.

Those customers were told they would make money based both on commissions from their personal online sales, and from commissions on sales generated by people they convinced to buy into the online store.

Prosecutors say that Internet mall never existed, though.

The two men were convicted of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in the Florida based federal court last August after a six-month trial. Roemmele also was convicted of a securities violation.

The convictions ended a five-year investigation into what officials say is one of the largest Internet fraud cases in southern Florida. Other people who worked for CitX or its Florida partner, Professional Resource Systems International, have already pleaded guilty or been convicted.

Roemmele's attorney, Paul David Lazarus, said his client maintains that he did nothing wrong; Roemmele has said CitX also was a victim of the scam and lost $2 million before declaring bankruptcy.

Lazarus said he doesn't know whether Roemmele will file an appeal, however.

Individuals convicted in federal court are subjected to a scoring system to come up with a recommended sentence. Lazarus said his client's original score could have brought a sentence of 25 to 30 years -- more than twice what the judge ultimately sentenced him to.

Lazarus said he objected to some of the factors that went into the original sentencing score, which helped lead to the lighter sentence. He said prosecutors could appeal the lower sentencing score and seek more prison time, though.

"If he appeals, you can bet the government will cross-appeal," Lazarus said. "So what he's risking is if he doesn't win his appeal [and the government does], he could be up to 25 instead."