Vincent Sennen Garcia – known to the surfing world as “Sunny” – was sentenced today to three months in prison for failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars of prize money earned as one of the world’s premier professional surfers.
Garcia pleaded guilty in June to evading taxes on winnings earned surfing the shores of Fiji, Australia, South Africa, France, Spain, Portugal and Brazil. In addition to the prison sentence, a federal judge ordered Garcia to seven months of home confinement, one year of supervised release and 80 hours of community service.
Former voiceofsandiego.org intern Marnette Federis took an interesting look at Garcia’s case in June, when many in the surfing world said Garcia’s problems stemmed from the early, informal days of the surfing circuit, before it became a such a lucrative endeavor. Read it here.