Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign, has been jailed for nearly four years for bank and tax fraud uncovered during the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference.

Wearing a green prison jumpsuit, Manafort sat still in a wheelchair and betrayed little emotion as the US district judge TS Ellis of the eastern district of Virginia pronounced the sentence, which will be partially offset by nine months already served.

“Mr Manafort, you stand accused of very serious crimes,” said Ellis, noting that these included concealing $6m from the Internal Revenue Service. “In essence, that’s a theft of money from everyone who pays their taxes.”

The sentence was far shy of federal sentencing guidelines, which call for 19 and a half to 24 years in prison for these types of offenses. Ellis described the guidelines as “excessive” and “out of whack”, saying Manafort had no prior criminal history and had lived “an otherwise blameless life”.

The judge acknowledged: “I don’t expect the sentence I’m about to announce to meet with everyone’s approval.” He told Manafort: “Life is making choices, Mr Manafort, and living with the choices you make. You made choices and engaged in criminal conduct and there will be consequences for that decision.”

The judge also chided Manafort not for expressing regret in a statement he made to the court minutes earlier. “You did not say, ‘I really, really regret not doing what the law required.’ It will not affect that sentence I impose but I hope you will reflect on that.”

In a hushed, packed courtroom, with the clock close to 7pm, Ellis then handed down concurrent sentences totalling 47 months for the eight charges on which the veteran Republican political consultant was convicted in Alexandria, Virginia, last August. But he said Manafort would receive credit for the nine months he has already spent incarcerated.

The judge imposed a fine of $50,000 on Manafort – who still owns a house in Alexandria, worth about $3m, and another in Palm Beach, Florida, worth an estimated $1.25m – noting that he was already obliged to pay restitution of $24m to his victims. “I think what I’ve done is sufficiently punitive.”

Outside of the courtroom, Ellis’s ruling and his comments that Manafort had lived “an otherwise blameless life” drew sharp criticism. “I’ve rarely been more disgusted by a judge’s transparently preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation,” tweeted Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard.

“A federal judge in Virginia gave Paul Manafort less prison time for eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud, and failing to file a foreign bank account report than Crystal Mason got in Texas for voting once while on probation. America,” noted the writer Jamil Smith.

The 69-year-old was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the US government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine’s former pro-Russia government. After the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The special counsel Robert Mueller’s charges led to the stunning downfall of Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as the former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

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On Thursday he arrived in the sleek modern courtroom looking like a shadow of the dapper, self-confident figure he cut during the 2016 election campaign. His face had aged and his hair had greyed. He was in a wheelchair and carrying a walking stick, which he rested against a table near a blank computer monitor and white polystyrene cup.

Manafort wore a green prison jumpsuit with “ALEXANDRIA INMATE” printed on the back, though some of the letters were fading. He was flanked by lawyers and, at least twice during the three-hour hearing, he turned to his wife and muttered brief words of reassurance.

Early on, mindful of his big audience in the public gallery, Ellis sought to make one thing clear: “He is not before the court on any allegation that he or anyone under his direction colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.”

Trump’s name was never mentioned but Manafort’s defence team argued that, but for extraordinary circumstances of the special counsel investigation, his case would probably have been dealt with by a district attorney’s office rather than going to full trial. Ellis mused: “I’ve been here for 32 years and I’ve seen a great deal. One thing I think everyone can agree with is this case is unusual.”

The defence also argued in mitigation that Manafort has spent 50 hours cooperating with Mueller’s team. But the government prosecutor Greg Andres countered: “The reason he met for 50 hours is because he lied. He did not provide valuable cooperation and there is nothing in the record, your honour, to suggest that he did.”

Ellis invited Manafort to address the court and told him he could remain seated because the evident physical pain that standing would cause him. Reading from a statement, the former Trump aide said: “The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.”

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He spoke about being separated from his family for nine months. “I appreciate the fairness of the trial you conducted,” he added. “My life is professionally and financially in shambles.”

Manafort said the “media frenzy” surrounding the case had been tough and that he had time to reflect on his choices. He hoped “to turn the notoriety into a positive and show who I really am”, he added. “I ask you for compassion.”

Manafort also faces sentencing in a separate case in Washington on 13 March on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September. While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, Judge Amy Berman Jackson could potentially stack that on top of the prison time Ellis has imposed.