Bridgeport, Conn. – Former Cendant Corp. chairman Walter Forbes was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay $3.275 billion in restitution for leading the largest accounting fraud of the 1990s.
In October, a jury found Forbes guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of making false statements in a massive fraud scheme that cost the travel and real-estate company and its investors more than $3 billion. He was found not guilty of a fourth count, securities fraud.
The Cendant case was among the first in a series of corporate accounting scandals that has sparked outrage from investors in recent years.
“We’re very pleased with the result,” said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, whose office prosecuted the case. “The public has waited many years for Walter Forbes to be brought to justice.”
It was the latest lengthy sentence handed down to a corporate executive convicted of corruption, experts said.
“It is justified and appropriate given the havoc he wreaked on the company and its shareholders,” Christie said. “Like similarly long sentences imposed on other corporate figures, it sends the correct message that everyone in our society should be held accountable for criminal conduct.”
Former Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison. Ex-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers received 25 years for his role in an $11 billion accounting fraud, and Dennis Koz lowski of Tyco International Ltd. received a sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison in another fraud case.
Forbes was released Wednesday on $1.2 million bond. No date was set for him to report to prison. His attorney, Brendan Sullivan, indicated in court that Forbes intends to appeal. Sullivan and Forbes declined to comment.
