San Diego

U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam denied bail for Nancy Hoover Hunter on Tuesday, dashing hopes that she might be released pending appeal on her conviction for tax evasion.

Gilliam made the ruling in a three-paragraph statement one week after Hunter’s attorneys had argued that she was not a flight risk and deserved to be freed on bail.

However, Gilliam ruled that he did not find “any new factors or change in circumstances” that would warrant Hunter’s release. She is incarcerated at the federal prison in Pleasanton after being convicted in December on four counts of tax evasion, totaling $1 million, and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Hoover and her former lover, J. David (Jerry) Dominelli, were charged in a Ponzi scheme that bilked about 1,500 investors of $80 million between 1979 and 1984. Dominelli pleaded guilty in 1985 to fraud and tax-evasion charges and is serving a 20-year sentence at Pleasanton.

At the Pleasanton prison, which houses men and women inmates, it is possible for Dominelli and Hunter to meet on the grounds, a prison official said Tuesday.