R. Gene Hornbeck, who was sentenced in 2005 for defrauding Carlsbad potash miners of retirement funds, was resentenced on Tuesday because the state Court of Appeals had vacated his embezzlement conviction, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.

Hornbeck was originally sentenced to 24 years, with 12 years suspended, after being found guilty of embezzlement, fraud, securities fraud and sale of unregistered securities, the Current-Argus said.

The state Court of Appeals earlier this year ruled that the embezzlement and fraud charges were mutually exclusive and that while he could be charged with both, he could only be convicted on one or the other count, the paper reported.

State District Judge J. Richard Brown on Tuesday sentenced Hornbeck to nine years for fraud, three years for securities fraud and two years for sale of unregistered securities, then suspended five years, bringing Hornbeck's total prison time to 10 years, according to the Current-Argus.

Hornbeck also will receive credit for time served and good time since his original sentencing in 2005, the paper said.

According to court records, Hornbeck received $600,000 from the Potash Corporation of America retirement fund in 2001 in order to invest the money in a trading account and gave fund trustees a promissory note with an annual interest rate of 15 percent that was to become due in June 2002, the Current-Argus said.

He made interest payments of $7,500 beginning in July 2001, but by the spring of 2002 he had stopped paying, court records said.

Investigators learned that Hornbeck had deposited just $250,000 of the money into a trading account in his own name and deposited the rest of the money into personal accounts for his own use, the Current-Argus reported. 

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