AKRON, Ohio -- An investment adviser has been sentenced to 12

years in prison on fraud charges related to the loss of $216

million in a hedge fund at the state agency for injured workers.

Mark Lay, chief executive and founder of the now defunct MDL

Capital Management of Pittsburgh, had faced a maximum sentence of

27 years.

U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. in Akron sentenced Lay on

Tuesday after the second day of a lengthy sentencing hearing.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation was the sole investor

in a high-risk hedge fund Lay set up in Bermuda. Prosecutors said

he failed to tell bureau officials about the extent of the risk.

Lay was the 19th person convicted in a wide-reaching corruption

scandal in Ohio that began in 2005.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)