Associated Press

DAVENPORT — A disbarred Iowa attorney sought for years by the FBI before finally being arrested has pleaded guilty to 11 federal counts of mail fraud.

U.S. Attorney Kevin VanderSchel said 52-year-old Dennis Bjorklund of Coralville entered the pleas Tuesday. Bjorklund faces up to 20 years on each count when he’s sentenced later this year.

Prosecutors say Bjorklund was an attorney in Coralville in 2005 and 2006 when he carried out a scheme while representing people charged with driving drunk. Bjorklund instructed his clients to donate to a substance abuse charity to try to garner leniency from the court. But the charity was a fake he had set up himself to collect the donations for his own use.

He was disbarred by the Iowa Supreme Court in 2006.

Bjorklund fled after he was indicted in 2010, and wasn’t found until 2015, when he was arrested in a Pueblo, Colorado, traffic stop. He’s been in federal custody since.

PREVIOUSLY: FBI catches former Coralville lawyer on the run since 2010