CHICAGO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday handed a 20-year prison sentence to Philip Baker, the former managing director of the collapsed Chicago hedge fund Lake Shore Asset Management Ltd.

Baker, a 46-year-old Canadian citizen, was sentenced to the maximum for a single wire fraud count by U.S. District Judge John Darrah for his role in soliciting $294 million from 900 investors worldwide, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.

Darrah also ordered Baker to pay $155 million in restitution, representing the outstanding losses to investors.

Baker averted a trial by pleading guilty in August. He has been in U.S. custody since December 2009, six months after a 27-count indictment against him was made public. Baker had been living in Hamburg, Germany.

According to the plea agreement, Baker from 2002 to 2007 fraudulently solicited $294 million to invest in commodity pools, for the purpose of trading futures. He admitted misappropriating at least $30 million for his own use and for another Lake Shore director.

Prosecutors said Baker advertised annual double-digit returns from some Lake Shore investments, reaching as high as 55.5 percent, when in fact he was hiding millions of dollars of trading losses.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission won a court order freezing Lake Shore's assets and a receiver has returned $120 million to investors so far, Fitzgerald's office said.

The case is U.S. v. Baker, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Chicago, No. 09-00175.

For Baker: Amy Pines of Levenfeld Pearlstein; Kurt Stitcher and Mindy Finnigan of Baker & Daniels.

For the U.S.: Clifford Histed and Carol Bell of the United States Attorney's Office.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern)

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