Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- A former Louisiana stockbroker, convicted in September of threatening Canadian Finance Minister James Flaherty in e-mails, was sentenced to 41 months in prison by a U.S. judge.

Lloyd Dewitt Tiller Jr., 61, of Shreveport, Louisiana, also was ordered yesterday to pay $80,000 in restitution to reimburse the Canadian government for extra security measures provided to Flaherty following the death threats and for trial costs.

“When one utters a death threat of the sort in this case, it will not be excused by the defendant’s stupidity, anger or frustration,” U.S. Attorney Donald Washington in Shreveport, said in a statement. “Mr. Tiller will pay a heavy price.”

Tiller threatened Flaherty in e-mails after the Canadian finance minister said in October 2006 that he would start taxing income trusts in 2011 to limit tax losses and halt companies from converting. The decision prompted a sell-off in income trust stocks, resulting in about C$22 billion ($18 billion) of losses in market value in the following three months.

Tiller sent Flaherty an e-mail on Nov. 13, 2006, in which he threatened to cut the minister’s throat and said, “you can’t hide, I will find YOU.” In a second e-mail, sent Jan. 18, 2007, Tiller said to Flaherty, “you need to be HUNG.” Tiller also threatened to hang Flaherty’s children.

U.S. District Judge Maurice Hicks Jr. imposed a sentence in the upper range of federal guidelines because trial testimony showed Tiller had engaged in similar conduct before. In 1997, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents warned Tiller that it’s a crime to make threats over the Internet after he sent an e-mail suggesting someone should plant a bomb under a car of a San Francisco Chronicle financial columnist.

The maximum sentence for threatening is 60 months in prison.

The case is USA v. Tiller, 5:07-cr-50067. U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (Shreveport).

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Toronto at jschneider5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 9, 2009 11:06 EST