Surfing veteran sentenced to prison for tax evasion

Twenty-year surf industry veteran Sunny Garcia has been handed a three-month federal prison sentence by a U.S. District Court Judge in San Diego for failure to pay about $117,000 in taxes from 1996 through 2001.

The Newport Beach resident pleaded guilty in June and will surrender himself in early January, Garcia’s attorney Steve Toscher said.

“He basically made some serious mistakes and didn’t focus on his tax affairs,” Toscher said after the sentencing Oct. 18.

Garcia failed to report a total of more than $417,000 of his winnings to the Internal Revenue Service, William Cole, assistant U.S. attorney, said.

The government asked for a sentence of five months in prison and five months house arrest, Cole said. Along with the prison sentence, Judge Thomas J. Whelan sentenced Garcia to seven months home detention and ordered him to complete 80 hours of community service upon his release.

Toscher said Garcia is working with the Huntington Beach High School surf team. At the judge’s urging, Garcia also plans to work with “disadvantaged or troubled children,” something he’s good at, Toscher said.

Garcia grew up in a poor family on the Hawaiian island Oahu. He quit school when he was 17 to tour as a professional surfer. He retired in 2005, only to come back this year, competing in the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing championships represented by O’Neill in Huntington Beach, where he had a good showing.

Garcia will report to the Bureau of Prisons in January to serve his time. The lag time will give Garcia time to spend with his family during the holidays. Garcia also had prior sponsorship obligations that the judge took into consideration, Toscher said.

One of Garcia’s main sponsors, Da Hui, has its warehouse in Costa Mesa. Da Hui representatives said media needed to make formal interview requests for comment.

Although Toscher could not confirm whether all Garcia’s sponsors will stick with him through the ordeal, he said Da Hui and others he’s most dedicated to have been supportive to this point.

“All I can say is many of them have stuck with him,” Toscher said. “He’s adhered to his obligations and they’ve stuck with him.”