Former area attorney and kids-for-cash figure Robert Powell has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to pay $3.5 million in restitution and will be sentenced on tax evasion charges next week, according to court records.

Powell, 66, of Palm Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to evading taxes connected to “substantial legal fees” he earned over a 12-year period at his former Luzerne County-based firm, The Powell Law Group.

But his sentencing hearing has been on hold indefinitely as his attorney, Stephen S. Stallings, has been engaged in a lengthy dispute with the U.S. Attorney’s Office about the amount of tax loss the government incurred.

In a recent order, U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion wrote that the parties have now agreed that for sentencing purposes the amount of tax loss was between $1.5 million and $3.5 million. Powell has also agreed to pay $3.5 million in restitution — although the IRS reserved the right to pursue additional back taxes if it determines the amount was higher, the judge wrote.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office had asserted that Powell owes the government more than $7 million he failed to pay during a tax evasion scheme of “staggering” scope. Stallings countered that the government’s suggested amount was off the mark by more than $4 million due to accounting “mistakes.”

The prosecution had also blasted Powell for failing to file his tax returns or to provide any financial information, as required by his plea agreement.

Mannion’s order, filed Jan. 15, canceled a presentencing evidentiary hearing aimed at settling the dispute about the amount of tax loss and scheduled Powell’s sentencing hearing for Feb. 5.

Powell will face a maximum prison term of up to five years.

Powell previously served 18 months in prison for failing to report a felony and being an accessory to a conspiracy in connection with Luzerne County’s infamous “kids-for-cash” case.

Prosecutors say Powell paid $770,000 to two corrupt county judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, who then funneled juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers Powell partly owned.

Conahan, 73, was initially sentenced to 17½ years in prison on racketeering conspiracy charges but had his sentence commuted in December 2024.

Ciavarella, 75, is still serving a 28-year prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institution-Butner in North Carolina on honest services mail-fraud charges.

He is scheduled to be released on June 18, 2034.