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A former sales manager for Amtel Communications Inc. was sentenced to 46 months in prison in connection with a scheme that authorities say fraudulently garnered $51 million from Amtel investors. David Darling was sentenced in federal court in San Diego. Darling and Amtel’s owner, Randall S. Kuhlmann, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of fraudulently inducing investors to buy pay telephones from Amtel and then lease them back for $50 per month, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. The men allegedly didn’t tell investors that San Diego-based Amtel, which is in bankruptcy, didn’t own the pay phones. Prosecutors said the men ran a “Ponzi” scheme in which money from new investors was used to pay earlier investors. The scam allegedly ran from February 1992 until November 1995 and involved at least 3,750 investors. Kuhlmann is scheduled to be sentenced in April. Darling’s lawyer in the civil case declined to comment, and his criminal lawyer could not be reached.