San Diego

Henry Clay Hart, a former West Virginia assistant attorney general, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison for a tax violation that cost the government $166,650, prosecutors said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. sentenced Hart, 61, who had pleaded guilty Oct. 12 to a sole felony count of aiding and abetting the preparation of a false income tax return.

The case arose from tax shelter partnerships in windmills that Hart formed and promoted in San Diego in 1984 and 1985 and that promised investors tax credits for alternative energy sources, said Assistant U.S. Atty. S. Gay Hugo-Martinez, who prosecuted the case.

Without actually buying the windmills, Hart claimed the tax credits on the partnership return and told investors to take the credits, too, Hugo-Martinez said.