MIAMI — Former University of South Carolina president James Holderman was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for scheming with an undercover officer to get visas under false names and to launder drug money.

After completing his sentence, Holderman, 68, of Charleston, will face three years of probation and will have to do community service.

Defense attorney Neil Nameroff said he would appeal the conviction and the sentence. U.S. District Judge Paul Huck denied a request that Holderman be freed while the appeal is pending, sending Holderman directly to prison.

Holderman, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, had no visible reaction when the sentence was announced.

“For me, time is pretty precious,” he told the judge before being sentenced. “I’ve been told many times that I’m bipolar, a manic depressive. ... I’m slipping daily in my short-term memory.”

Holderman was convicted in September on all four counts facing him: conspiracy to launder money, attempted laundry of money, conspiracy to sell false immigration documents and offering to sell false immigration documents. He faced a maximum sentence of seven years, three months.

Holderman claimed the FBI lured him into crimes he never intended to commit while desperate for money to treat his mental illness.

In the FBI sting, Holderman brought a protege, former USC student and Dallas college administrator Rafael Diaz Cabral, into dealings with the officer, who was posing as a drug-dealing Russian mobster. Diaz testified against Holderman in exchange for a 14-month sentence.

Prosecutors said Holderman and Diaz agreed to accept $250,000 in drug profits for the purchase of a casino license from Diaz’s father in the Dominican Republic.

Holderman testified he took $30,000 from Miami Beach police Detective Sgt. Peter Smolyanski as part of his own “charade” to get mental health treatment.

Smolyanski told the pair that, in exchange, he wanted U.S. visas for himself and up to 200 associates and $500,000 to $1 million a month in clean profits from his crimes.

Diaz testified he agreed to allow the associates to pose as students so they could apply for student visas to enter the country.

Holderman, who was named president of USC in 1977, brought Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan to the university during his 13-year tenure.

His time in office ended in 1990 after public criticism of his extravagant spending practices.

After leaving the university, Holderman had a number of personal and legal problems:

• In 1990 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

• Holderman pleaded guilty to receiving $25,000 in extra compensation and plead no contest to state income tax evasion in May 1991. He was sentenced to five years of probation and 500 hours of community service.

• In December 1991, the USC board of trustees stripped Holderman of the ceremonial “distinguished president emeritus” title it had given him a year before.

• In September 1996, Holderman was sentenced to 10½ months in federal prison on perjury charges stemming from a bankruptcy case.