Colonial Bank exec sentenced to 8 years in prison

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former bank executive has been sentenced 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 slightly longer term of 11 years for 50-year-old Catherine Kissick of Orlando, Fla. Kissick had been a senior vice president at Alabama-based Colonial Bank.

Kissick concealed from her superiors that mortgage company Taylor Bean and Whitaker was selling hundreds of millions of dollars in worthless mortgages to Colonial.

Kissick on Friday apologized for her conduct. She said she was trying to buy time so Taylor Bean would repay the bank but was manipulated by Taylor Bean's owner, Lee Farkas, who will be sentenced next month.