An investor in a foreign currency trading fund has been sentenced to five years in prison for evading more than $150,000 in taxes.

William H. Nurick, 76, of Camarillo, Calif., was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay $286,443 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer in Los Angeles. Nurick was convicted last September on tax charges after a five-day jury trial.

His conviction stems from his involvement with the Genesis Fund, an investment fund that operated from approximately 1994 through 2002 and focused on foreign currency trading. According to prosecutors, Nurick received approximately $1.1 million in distributions from the Genesis Fund between 1995 and 2002, and used eight different entities during that time to conceal his control over bank accounts, vehicles and real property.

In May 2000, Nurick allegedly filed an amended 1995 individual income tax return admitting he owed $106,542 related to his investment in the Genesis Fund, but nonetheless tried to conceal assets between May 2000 and April 2001 to evade payment of the balance owed to the IRS for his 1995 taxes. Following a notice of balance due from the IRS, Nurick transferred approximately $133,000 from an offshore bank account that he controlled to a witness’s offshore bank account. Nurick also submitted a false offer in compromise to the IRS, offering to pay less than one-tenth of his outstanding debt. The offer in compromise, which was signed under penalty of perjury, falsely understated his net worth and income, according to prosecutors, and failed to indicate a bank account in Costa Rica with a balance in excess of $200,000, which consisted primarily of distributions he had received from the Genesis Fund.

Nurick also falsely claimed on this document that he would receive no further distributions from the Genesis Fund, when in fact, he received over $350,000 from it through distributions to multiple entities that he controlled. 

Of the nine defendants originally charged in the case, eight have pleaded guilty to charges including tax fraud, obstruction of justice and securities violations. Judge Fischer sentenced many of the defendants to significant prison terms and ordered restitution payments totaling millions of dollars. The last of the eight guilty pleas was entered in court on Dec. 12, 2011, by defendant Marlyn D. Hinders. Hinders was a fugitive until June 2011 when he was deported from Mexico and arrested by the United States Marshal’s Service. After a detention hearing in July 2011, Judge Fischer ordered Hinders held without bond pending trial. Hinders, formerly a resident of Colorado, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 2, 2012.