PARIS — Six men who netted over $50 million in a brazen and elaborate scheme by impersonating a French defense minister and asking wealthy individuals and institutions to pay for fake, off-the-book government operations were convicted on Wednesday of fraud by a criminal court in Paris.

Two of the men, Gilbert Chikli, 54, and Anthony Lasarevitsch, 35, whom investigators called the masterminds of the plot, were sentenced to 11 years and seven years in prison and fined 2 million euros and 1 million euros ($2.3 million and $1.1 million).

Mr. Chikli reacted angrily after the verdict on Wednesday, calling the trial a “scandal” and accusing prosecutors of having brought the case at the behest of Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s defense minister from 2012 to 2017.

“You should be ashamed, prosecutor of the rich,” he shouted in the courtroom.

Four other men, ages 27 to 49, who were suspected of varying levels of involvement in the scheme, received sentences of 15 months to five years in prison — some of the time suspended — as well as fines of between €40,000 and €100,000. The court found a fifth man not guilty.