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Reno Man Sentenced in Alleged Extortion Scam

Saturday, Sept. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The sentence handed down Friday in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia also ordered Michael Sunde to spend one year of supervised release following the prison term, including five months in a halfway house, and to pay a $10,000 fine.

Sunde, 53, was arrested here July 25, 1995, for a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento.

Sunde, who was president of Westcom Long Distance Inc., and operated Silver State Telecom Inc., was accused of demanding $70,000 from a California telephone executive in exchange for not contacting the Internal Revenue Service with accusations that the executive failed to pay federal excise taxes.

The executive, Paul Lindahl, who owns Nevada Discall in Pine Grove, went to authorities and Sunde was arrested after Lindahl came to Reno last year to supposedly make the payoff.

The judge called it "a classic extortion scheme."

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