The former finance chief of bankrupt hedge fund company Bayou Management was sentenced to 20 years in prison, among the harshest sentences meted out in the US for a white-collar crime, for his part in defrauding investors of more than $400m.

The judge in Manhattan Federal Court said that in determining the sentence, she considered the size of the fraud and the role played by former finance officer Daniel Marino, whom she described as the “linchpin’’ of the scheme.