Robert ArledgeJACKSON (AP) – The Mississippi Supreme Court has agreed to an indefinite suspension of the license of lawyer Robert Arledge of Vicksburg while Arledge appeals his 2007 conviction related to an investigation of false diet drug settlement claims in Mississippi.

Arledge was convicted in federal court of seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in a scam bilking the drug company Wyeth out of more than $6.7 million. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.

Arledge, who reported to federal prison in Alabama this year, had been charged with knowingly allowing clients to make fraudulant fen-phen claims of about $250,000 each.

Fen-phen was a prescription diet drug pulled from markets in 1997.