I guess the “I didn’t know that” defense didn’t work so well for good buddy Wayne.  Remember ALFII and MyICIS ? Here is the latest.

FAYETTEVILLE — A former Berryville man who ran an alternative banking scheme was sentenced to federal prison Thursday and must repay somewhere between $7 million and $20 million.

Wayne A. Hicks Sr., 52, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to defraud the federal government of income taxes.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the alternative banking system, known as ICIS or MYICIS, was created in 2002 for a group called Americans for Lawful Financial Independence and Information. ICIS is an acronym for several names, including Integral Currency Interchange System, Interactive Currency Interface System or Internet Check Issuance System.

Many of the members were involved in the so-called Patriot Movement and were generally anti-government and did not pay federal income taxes. Some schemed to overthrow the federal government, according to prosecutors.

Hicks promoted the alternative banking system at seminars and membership grew from about 800 in January 2005 to 3,000 members by April 2007, according to prosecutors.

At his sentencing Thursday morning, Hicks told U.S. District Judge Jimm Hendren he initially didn’t believe what he was doing was wrong but later came to understand the fallacy of some of the Patriot Movement’s anti-tax and anti-government theories.

Hicks said he never intended to help people avoid paying their taxes but was dealing with “crazy” people who were paranoid and terrified of the government’s use of technology. He said Patriot Movement members thought banks were part of the problem so he gave them an alternative to banks and didn’t keep traditional records.

“It evolved into something a lot worse than I ever intended it to,” Hicks said.

Hendren told Hicks the contention he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong didn’t make a lot of sense because he was clearly running a scheme to avoid the Internal Revenue Service finding out how much money was being made.

Hendren sentenced Hicks to the statutory maximum of five years in prison to be followed by three years supervised release. He was fined $25,000.

Hendren gave the government 90 days to determine the amount of restitution Hicks owes. The figure is somewhere between $7 million and $20 million. If the government cannot say definitively how much restitution should be paid, Hendren will set it at the minimum $7 million.

Hicks also owes somewhere between $400,000 and $1 million in unpaid personal federal income taxes, according to prosecutors. Before he was arrested, Hicks had not paid federal income taxes since 1992.

Hicks was given three weeks to attend to family matters before reporting to prison.