Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Lauryn Hill released from federal prison

Lauryn Hill still faces three months of home confinement and a year of supervised probation for her conviction for failing to pay federal income tax.Lauryn Hill still faces three months of home confinement and a year of supervised probation for her conviction for failing to pay federal income tax.NEW: Lawyer: Hill got out a few days early due to "good behavior," among other factors Lauryn Hill is released from a federal prison in Danbury, ConnecticutShe still faces months of home confinement and supervised probationThe Grammy winner pleaded guilty to failing to pay her federal taxes

(CNN) -- Lauryn Hill walked free from a federal prison Friday and -- if she has her way -- back into the musical spotlight.

The Grammy-winning artist was released from a low-security all-female facility in Danbury, Connecticut, according to federal prison records. She'd been incarcerated for the past three months for failing to pay federal income taxes.

The 38-year-old still faces restrictions, though: three months of home confinement and a year of supervised probation. She'd also been ordered to pay penalties and the taxes she owed. Her lawyer, Nathan Hochman, said Hill has since fully paid her taxes.

Hochman confirmed his client left the western Connecticut prison, as well as the fact she started her home confinement and probation on Friday.

The singer got out several days earlier than planned due to various factors, "including good behavior," Hochman said.

On the same day of her release from prison, Hill released a new song called "Consumerism" -- a fast-moving track that puts the spotlight on various -isms, such as skepticism and narcissism -- via her official Tweeter feed. According to the linked page, "she wanted to get this music out while she was incarcerated, as it is a product of the space she was in while she was going through some of the challenges she has been faced with recently."

The former Fugees star and solo artist has sold 16 million albums over the course of her career. But she didn't meet her tax obligations all that time: Hill pleaded guilty last year to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million between 2005 and 2007.

According to the prosecutor, the sentence she eventually faced also took "into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009 -- when she also failed to file federal returns -- along with her outstanding tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of approximately $2.3 million and total tax loss of approximately $1,006,517."

Despite her commercial success, Hill told U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in May that she lives "very modestly" and claimed that most of the money from her music went to other people. Describing her "life of sacrifice with very little time for myself and my children," Hill insisted that she planned to pay her taxes, it was just a question of when.

But, at her sentencing, the judge reminded the singer that individual citizens don't get to decide when they pay the government.

CNN's Jane Caffrey contributed to this report.

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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Ex-teacher gets 5-year prison term for student sex

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former North Texas high school teacher was convicted Friday and sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with five 18-year-old students at her home.

The Tarrant County jury decided on the sentence for Brittni Nicole Colleps, 28, of Arlington after nearly three hours of deliberation. It took jurors less than an hour to find her guilty earlier in the day of 16 counts of having an inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher. The second-degree felony is punishable by two to 20 years in prison per count.

The former Kennedale High School English teacher had sex with the students at her home over two months in 2011, authorities said.

Colleps is married and has three children. She turned herself in after a cellphone video of one encounter that involved multiple students emerged. That video was shown a trial.

Three former students who testified Thursday said that they did not consider themselves victims and did not want to see their former English teacher prosecuted. The three were football and track athletes.

Arlington police Detective Jason Houston testified that charges were filed because "18 or not, it's a crime" for a teacher to have sex with her students.

Two former students told jurors their relationships with Colleps began with the exchange of text messages that quickly turned sexual.

A 19-year-old testified that he had gone to Colleps' home twice with friends and they all engaged in sexual conduct.

A former student who is now 20 testified that he engaged in group sex and recorded his last encounter on a cellphone. He said initially the students spoke of the importance of keeping their activities quiet because they didn't want their teacher to get in trouble.

The 20-year-old also said when school officials called him into the office to question him in May 2011, he denied the trysts at first because "I was trying to save her."

Colleps' husband was serving in the military overseas at the time of the encounters. Christopher Colleps said Friday that he is mad at his wife, but stands by her "because 'til death do us part means 'til death do us part."

He said putting her in jail would punish him and their children for something they had no control over.

Kennedale is a town of about 7,300 residents near Arlington, eight miles southeast of Fort Worth. The high school has about 3,200 students.


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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Kidnapper in Chowchilla case wins prison release

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After more than 35 years in prison, one of three men who kidnapped a busload of California schoolchildren in a ransom attempt that captured the nation's attention will soon be released.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday that it would release Richard Schoenfeld later this month at an undetermined location.

The announcement comes after an appeals court earlier this year ordered Schoenfeld's immediate release, ruling that the Board of Parole Hearings unfairly set his release date for 2021 even though it concluded he wasn't a threat to society.

But Schoenfeld has remained locked up while CDCR appealed to the California Supreme Court. On Thursday, the high court notified CDCR that it was refusing to take the case.

"As such, CDCR does not have any legal option other than to release inmate Shoenfeld and will do so," CDCR spokesman Luis Patino said Friday.

The cases of Schoenfeld and his accomplices — his brother John Schoenfeld and their friend Fred Woods — has become something of a cause celebre among lawyers, judges and others lobbying for reforms in the California parole system they view as too harsh. All three have good prison records and became eligible for release years ago, which has been opposed by many of the victims and some residents of Chowchilla. Chowchilla Mayor Janan Hebert and Mayor pro tem Jim Kopshever did not return messages sent to their government email accounts.

John Schoenfeld and Woods have parole hearings later this year.

Richard Schoenfeld's attorney Scott Handleman didn't return a phone call.

"After some 36 years, Richard Schoenfeld's parole release is long, long overdue," said Gary Dubcoff, John Schoenfeld's attorney. "He worked extremely hard to rehabilitate himself, and my great hope is that his two codefendants, his older brother James Schoenfeld and Fred Woods, will soon follow him as they have worked equally hard and are equally worthy."

Schoenfeld and his brother John Schoenfeld, who grew up as the sons of a podiatrist in the tony San Francisco suburb of Atherton, along with friend Fred Woods hatched their kidnap-for-ransom plan in 1976 after falling into debt because of a real estate deal gone sour. They spent 18 months working on the plan.

On July 16, 1976, they pretended their van had engine problems along Avenue 21 about 35 miles south of Fresno, prompting bus driver Ed Ray to pull over and park his bus of 26 summer school students.

The trio, who were wearing pantyhose on their heads, forced the victims into two vans and hid the bus in a creek bed. They drove about 100 miles to a Livermore quarry owned by Woods' father and sealed the children and Ray in a trailer in a cave. They then left to make their $5 million ransom demand.

The Chowchilla Police Department was swamped with so many calls that the kidnappers couldn't get through so they decided to take a nap before calling in their demand.

When they awoke, Ray and the two oldest children had managed to stack mattresses high enough to escape through the roof. Eventually, all the abductees staggered to safety.

Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in eight days later. His brother and Woods were arrested the next week.

The case was turned into a 1993 made-for-television movie titled "They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping," starring Karl Malden as Ray.

Ray, 91, died last month.

CDCR spokesman Patino, speaking generally about parole, said parolees are generally sent to the county of their last address before they entered prison, "but sometimes there are other considerations, such as the location of the victims."


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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Prison time for New Orleans ex-cops in post-Katrina killings

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Four former New Orleans policemen convicted of shooting unarmed people following Hurricane Katrina were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Wednesday in what the U.S. government described as the most important police misconduct case since the Rodney King beating nearly two decades ago.

The four former officers - Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius and Anthony Villavaso - were sentenced by a federal judge to between 38 and 65 years in prison. A fifth former officer - Arthur "Archie" Kaufman - who did not participate in the killings but engineered a four-year cover-up of the crimes was sentenced to six years.

The New Orleans police case was the "most significant police misconduct prosecution since Rodney King," U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez said, referring to the beating of a black motorist by Los Angeles police officers in 1991 that was caught on videotape.

In both the Los Angeles and New Orleans cases, the federal government stepped in to prosecute the police officers for misconduct after local efforts failed.

The five former New Orleans officers sentenced on Wednesday were among a dozen officers who responded to a radio call that police were being shot at near the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans just days after Hurricane Katrina.

The officers packed into a rental truck and sped to the site. Witnesses testified that when the officers arrived, they jumped out of the truck and repeatedly fired assault rifles, shotguns and handguns at civilians walking on the bridge.

James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, 40, were killed in the shooting spree.

In reports filed by the officers or on their behalf, they claimed they shot only after being threatened or fired on and that they had seen weapons in the victims' hands.

Kaufman was later convicted of planting a handgun at the scene.

Lance Madison, who was with his brother when Ronald Madison was killed, and who was later arrested and jailed on false charges, told the judge on Wednesday that "I truly don't know why I am alive today."

"These officers shot Ronald down like an animal," he said. Turning to the defendants, he said: "You are responsible for the nightmares that have devastated my family."

The sentencing of the five men in New Orleans federal court completed one of the last cases of police misconduct more than six years after the devastating hurricane flooded the city and triggered a chaotic aftermath.

Some 1,500 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless. In the days immediately after the hurricane an atmosphere of lawlessness prevailed and National Guard troops were brought in to bolster the overwhelmed New Orleans police.

Last August, a jury found Bowen, Faulcon, Gisevius and Villavaso guilty on multiple charges including federal civil rights violations stemming from the September 4, 2005, incident.

Bowen and Gisevius were sentenced to 40 years each and Villavaso to 38 years by U.S. District Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt. Faulcon was sentenced to 65 years.

Homicide detective Kaufman was convicted of covering up the crimes through a series of false reports and lies that continued for more than four years.

Another police detective charged with participating in the cover-up is slated for trial in May.

Federal prosecutors and the FBI took up the case in 2009 after a previous case brought by the New Orleans district attorney was thrown out because of a prosecutor's misconduct.

(An earlier version of the story was corrected to fix spelling of last name of Kurt Engelhardt, not Englehardt, and last name of James Brissette, not Bresette)

(Editing by Greg McCune and Lisa Shumaker)


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Cops face decades in prison for Katrina shootings

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A case that became the centerpiece of the Justice Department's push to clean up the troubled New Orleans Police Department was expected to close a chapter Wednesday with a federal judge sentencing five former police officers for their roles in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

U.S. District Kurt Engelhardt was to hear several hours of arguments by prosecutors and defense attorneys and testimony by relatives of shooting victims and the officers before sentencing the former officers.

Four of the five officers who were convicted at trial last year face decades in prison under sentencing guidelines. While Engelhardt isn't bound by those guidelines, Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of firearms charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences.

Arthur Kaufman, a retired sergeant who wasn't charged in the shootings but was convicted of participating in a cover-up, faces significantly less prison time under the guidelines.

A total of 20 current or former New Orleans police officers have been charged in a series of Justice Department probes, most of which center on actions during the aftermath of the 2005 storm. Eleven of those officers were charged in the Danziger Bridge case, which stunned a city with a long history of police corruption.

Police shot six unarmed people, killing two, on the bridge as they responded to another officer's distress call. Realizing it was a "bad shoot," police immediately embarked on a brazen cover-up that included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and bogus reports, according to prosecutors.

Defense attorneys are expected to ask the judge to deviate from the guidelines and show the officers leniency.

In a court filing last week, Bowen's attorney asked for more time during the sentencing hearing for testimony about the grueling conditions officers endured in Katrina's aftermath.

"He wants to present evidence of the rescue work that he and other officers in NOPD's Seventh District performed in the week between Katrina and the Danziger incident, and of the physical and emotional toll which that work took," wrote Bowen's lawyer, Robin Schulberg.

Bowen's witnesses would testify about "emotional trauma of having to leave some people behind," the lawyer added.

"They would speak about mothers offering up their babies to passing rescuers who could not stop for fear that other people in the crowd would take their vehicles, about getting little sleep at night for fear of incursions," Schulberg wrote.

Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, leading to the collapse of levees and flooding an estimated 80 percent of the city. New Orleans was plunged into chaos as residents who hadn't evacuated were driven from their homes to whatever high places they could find.

On the morning of Sept. 4, one group was crossing the Danziger Bridge in the city's Gentilly area when police received calls that shots were being fired and rushed to the span. Gunfire reports were common after Katrina and law enforcement and emergency responders were strained by the unprecedented disaster.

At the Danziger Bridge, the worst elements of the chaos came together as police fired on a group crossing the bridge to what they believed was safe haven.

Lance Madison, whose 40-year-old, mentally disabled brother, Ronald, was shot and killed on the bridge along with 17-year-old James Brissette, is expected to speak on behalf of his family during the sentencing hearing. Lance Madison was arrested on attempted murder charges after police falsely accused him of shooting at the officers on the bridge. He was jailed for three weeks before a judge freed him.

An attorney for members of the families would not comment before the sentencings.

Faulcon was convicted of fatally shooting Ronald Madison, but the jury decided the killing didn't amount to murder. Faulcon, Gisevius, Bowen and Villavaso were convicted in Brissette's killing, but jurors didn't hold any of them individually responsible for causing his death.

All five of the officers were convicted of participating in a cover-up. Five other former officers who pleaded guilty to participating in the cover-up and cooperated with federal investigators are already serving prison terms.

After the jury's verdicts in August, Madison's relatives said in a statement that they had waited six years to "find out what really happened on that bridge." Madison's sister, Jackie Madison Brown, read the statement, which also said that after an event like Katrina, "all citizens, no matter what color or what class, deserve protection."

Wednesday's sentencing won't be the final chapter in the case. The convicted officers are expected to appeal, and Gerard Dugue, a retired sergeant, is scheduled to be retried in May on charges stemming from his alleged role in the cover-up.

Dugue's first trial was cut short in January when Engelhardt declared a mistrial. He ruled Justice Department prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein may have unfairly influenced the jury by mentioning the name of a man who was beaten to death by a New Orleans police officer in a case unrelated to Dugue's.

Bowen, Gisevius and Villavaso have been fired. Faulcon quit the force shortly after the storm. Kaufman retired before last year's trial.


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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Ex-mortgage CEO sentenced to prison for $3B fraud (AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The CEO of what had been one of the nation's largest privately held mortgage lenders was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in prison for his role in a $3 billion scheme that officials called one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

The 40-month sentence for Paul R. Allen, 55, of Oakton, Va., is slightly less than the six-year term sought by federal prosecutors.

"I messed up. I messed up big," Allen told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema before he was sentenced, apologizing to his family and "the entire financial community. "There was no excuse for my behavior."

Allen was chief executive at Ocala, Fla.-based Taylor Bean & Whitaker, which collapsed in 2009 after the criminal investigation became public, resulting in its 2,000 employees losing their jobs. The fraud also contributed to the collapse of Alabama-based Colonial Bank — the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history — after Colonial bought hundreds of millions of dollars in Taylor Bean mortgages that had already been sold to other investors.

Two other banks — Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas — lost nearly $2 billion after buying corporate paper from Taylor Bean that was not properly backed with collateral, authorities said.

Taylor Bean and Colonial also tried to obtain more than $500 million from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program but ultimately never received any funding from the program also known as TARP.

Neil Barofsky, who served as TARP's special inspector general, said the Taylor Bean case was the most significant criminal prosecution to arise out of the nation's financial crisis. The convictions of company chairman Lee Farkas and Allen represent some of the most high-profile executives in the housing and financial industries to receive prison time in the aftermath of the housing sector meltdown.

Allen's lawyer argued for leniency on the theory that Allen was CEO in name only. The real mastermind was Farkas, who kept Allen out of the loop on much of the company's day-to-day operations, according to trial testimony.

"Mr. Allen was not treated as a CEO. He did not function as a CEO," said defense lawyer Stephen Graeff. "Sentence Mr. Allen the man, not Mr. Allen the title."

But Brinkema said Allen's title was significant, adding Allen's reputation in the industry lent credibility to Taylor Bean that it otherwise would not have had. Even worse, Brinkema said, Allen had subordinates who were reporting the problems to Allen, but Allen left them to fend for themselves. One of those Taylor Bean employees, Sean Ragland, also was sentenced Friday to three months in prison and nine months of home detention for his role in the scheme.

"I can't understand why in the world you didn't stop it," Brinkema told Allen.

Allen, for his part, apologized to his family and to "the entire financial community."

By the time Allen became CEO in 2003, the fraud was already under way, and Taylor Bean owed more than $100 million to Colonial. Allen's part in the schemes, came later, especially in the commercial paper loans from Deutsche bank and BNP Paribas that eventually grew to become the largest part of the fraud.

Ragland and Allen are the fifth and sixth persons to be sent to prison as part of the Taylor Bean-Colonial fraud, and investigators say the investigation is continuing. Sentences have ranged from three months to eight years.

All six received credit on their sentences for cooperating with investigators and testifying at Farkas' trial.

"Mr. Allen's sentence reflects his ultimate cooperation with this investigation, but also sends the message that unless executives expose and stop fraud when they first learn of it, they will be punished," said Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Farkas is to be sentenced next week, and prosecutors have indicated they will seek a significantly longer sentence for Farkas than for his co-conspirators.


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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Colonial Bank exec sentenced to 8 years in prison (AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former bank executive was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for her role in a $3 billion fraud scheme that helped topple her bank as well as one of the nation's largest private mortgage companies.

Federal prosecutors had sought a term of 11 years for Catherine Kissick, 50, of Orlando, Fla. Kissick had been a senior vice president at Alabama-based Colonial Bank.

Prosecutors said that Kissick, more than anybody, could have put a halt at the earliest stages to a staggering fraud scheme masterminded by Lee Farkas, the owner of Florida-based mortgage company Taylor Bean & Whitaker.

Indeed, Kissick's willingness to further such a massive fraud when she had no financial incentive to do so was one of the biggest mysteries in a case that officials have called the biggest prosecution to stem from the nation's financial crisis. Kissick received no bribes or payments to look the other way — court papers, in fact, show that prosecutors were initially incredulous that Kissick had willingly enabled Taylor Bean to steal hundreds of millions of dollars unless she was receiving some kind of kickback.

But Kissick said she felt she was trapped in a lie as events spiraled out of control.

She knew by 2002 that Taylor Bean & Whitaker was routinely overdrawing on its main account at Colonial by several million dollars. At first Kissick alerted her superiors and tried to work with Taylor Bean to fix the problem. Instead, the problem grew worse and worse and Kissick concealed from top bank officials that the hole in Taylor Bean's account was growing to hundreds of millions of dollars. The scheme took several forms, but the biggest damage came from worthless mortgages that Taylor Bean routinely sold to Colonial even though they had already been purchased by other investors.

The fraud continued for seven years, as Farkas and other Taylor Bean executives essentially steamrolled over Kissick and her constant entreaties to fix the problem. Kissick testified that she felt she had no choice to but to continue the scheme and hope that Taylor Bean would eventually make good on its debt.

Eventually, Taylor Bean defrauded Colonial out of more than $500 million. Two other banks, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas, lost nearly $2 billion in a separate scheme. Taylor Bean and Colonial even tried to use their cooked books to obtain more than $500 million in funding from the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). But TARP never gave either Colonial or Taylor Bean any money, and TARP investigators helped unravel the scheme in 2009.

Colonial and Taylor Bean collapsed in 2009. Colonial's collapse was the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history, and 2,000 Taylor Bean employees lost their jobs when the company shut its doors after a federal raid in August 2009.

At Friday's sentencing hearing, Kissick apologized for her actions.

"I started out at Colonial Bank trying to do the right thing," Kissick said. "I am so ashamed I was ever part of it."

Kissick said she should have told her superiors from the very outset that the problem couldn't be covered up.

In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema expressed some sympathy for Kissick, but said she ultimately should have known that her efforts to fix the problem were fruitless and counterproductive.

"Seven years this was going on," Brinkema said. "At any point you could have gone to the auditors."

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride said Kissick served as the ultimate enabler.

"Lee Farkas pulled off one of history's largest bank frauds because he had people inside Colonial Bank with the power to do it and hide it. Without help from Catherine Kissick - a high-level executive at one of the nation's top regional banks - the fraud scheme might have been discovered in its infancy."

Also on Friday, a lower-level Colonial employee — Teresa Kelly, 35, of Ocoee, Fla. — was sentenced to three months in prison for her role in the scheme. Kissick and Kelly are the third and fourth people to receive jail sentences in the investigation. Three more, including Farkas and Taylor Bean CEO Paul Allen, will be sentenced later this month.


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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Former TBW execs get prison time for roles in fraud (Reuters)

Alexandria, Virginia (Reuters) – Two former senior Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp executives were sentenced on Friday to several years in prison for their roles in a nearly $3 billion fraud that took down the big lender and a major bank.

The fraud ran more than seven years until August 2009 when TBW collapsed after the U.S. housing market imploded, taking Colonial BancGroup Inc's (CBCDQ.PK) Colonial Bank with it and putting hundreds of people at the firm out of work.

Company and bank officials were accused of trying to cover up enormous losses by moving money between accounts at Colonial Bank and selling mortgage loans that did not exist, were worthless or already had been sold.

The Obama administration elicited guilty pleas from six senior executives. TBW's former chairman, Lee Farkas, was convicted by a jury in April on 14 counts of bank, securities and wire fraud as well as conspiracy.

"They knew that without their fraud scheme, TBW would fail," said Neil MacBride, the U.S. attorney for eastern Virginia. "They allowed Lee Farkas to control and manipulate them into doing what they knew was wrong, and now they will pay for their crimes."

It is one of the few cases in which prosecutors have been able to penetrate the executive suites of a major firm in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Most prosecutions have involved lower-level employees or much smaller firms.

Desiree Brown, TBW's former treasurer, was sentenced by District Judge Leonie Brinkema to six years in prison after she tearfully acknowledged her wrongdoing. She pleaded to one count of conspiracy to commit bank, wire and securities fraud.

"It was never my intent to commit a crime," she told the court. "It was always my intent to fix the problem."

Prosecutor Patrick Stokes sought an eight-year sentence, telling the judge that Brown had "a substantial role in the fraud" and that she had been "blinded by her loyalty to Mr. Farkas."

Her attorney urged a lesser sentence, suggesting five years and noting that she was just a "country girl from Nebraska with a high school" education. She started as a receptionist before working her way up in the company.

Brinkema also sentenced TBW's former president, Raymond Bowman, to 30 months in prison. He had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy fraud charge as well as for lying to investigators when they raided the mortgage firm two years ago.

Prosecutors had sought five years in prison.

Brinkema gave lower sentences than sought by prosecutors. One prosecutor, Charles Connolly, urged the stiff penalties be imposed because "there needs to be a message sent to the Street" that the conduct was unacceptable.

However, the judge said the two were unlikely to commit crimes again, noted their cooperation and said that they were likely decent people. However, she said it was a massive fraud and the sentences would serve as a deterrent to others.

Connolly told the judge that the TBW investigation was ongoing. Farkas is due to be sentenced on June 27.

Before its collapse, TBW was one of the country's largest privately-held mortgage lenders, doing some $20 billion in mortgage sales a year, and Colonial Bank was one of the top 50 U.S. banks before regulators took it over.

Authorities have estimated the fraud at nearly $3 billion. The executives were also accused of misappropriating money from one of its own funding mechanisms which had two big investors, Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and BNP Paribas SA (BNPP.PA).

As losses mounted at TBW, the firm tried to drum up capital to help Colonial Bank win $553 million in funding from the federal bank bailout program known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, prosecutors said. No money was disbursed.

The cases are: USA v. Bowman, No. 11-cr-118 and USA v. Brown, No. 11-cr-84 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

(Editing by Robert MacMillan)


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