Foreign-Exchange 'Guru' Gets Nine-Year Term

And you thought Wesley Snipes had it tough.

A federal judge last week sentenced 49-year-old Joel Nathan Ward, a frequent commentator on foreign currency trading, to nine years in prison—that's three times as long as Snipes's term for tax violations—for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly 100 investors out of more than $11 million. In addition to the prison time, Ward was order to pay nearly $11.3 million in restitution.

Between early 2003 and November 2006, Ward received more than $15 million from investors for a foreign-exchange trading fund. But most of the cash was never invested:

From the U.S. Department of Justice press release:

About 85% was diverted to other purposes, including promoting Ward's business interests, salary, travel and other expenses, and purchasing a foreign exchange trading school in Sacramento called Learn:Forex. Ward also used about $3.7 million to make "Ponzi" payments back to investors who sought to withdraw funds.

But what about the other 15 percent?

According to trading records, he only actually traded about $2 million and lost virtually all of it in the foreign-exchange market.

To round out his fraudulent portfolio, Ward also participated in a scheme involving a purported Mississippi real estate investment project.

So what's the good news about a nine-year sentence? Well, it means that Ward is more likely to serve at least a portion of his time at a minimum-security prison camp, rather than a low-security prison. (If you have a sentence longer than 10 years, you can't go to a camp.)

While prison camps are not nearly as cushy as we are often led to believe, there are no fences and the great majority of offenders are nonviolent—which can't be said of low-security prisons. Still, nine years is a long time no matter where you do it.

Still, Ward shouldn't expect any sympathy cards from U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento, Calif. "Joel Nathan Ward earned every minute of the nine-year sentence the court imposed," he said in a statement.