Broker Gets 6 Years in $12-Million Fraud : Real estate: California Anchor Group’s ex-president had asked to serve 1 week a month in jail for 10 years.

The former president of a Woodland Hills real estate investment company that defrauded more than 200 investors out of an estimated $12 million was sentenced Thursday in federal court to six years in prison.

In sentencing Alan R. Keranen, 42, to federal prison, U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne rejected an unusual request from Keranen that he receive a 10-year sentence during which he would be jailed one week of every month and be free the rest of the time to work to pay back the investors.

Byrne rejected the proposal, saying the fraud was too serious not to merit a standard prison sentence.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Anita H. Dymant also opposed Keranen’s proposal and had asked Byrne to sentence the once-flamboyant salesman to 10 years in prison.

In sentencing Keranen to six years, Byrne also ordered him to make restitution of $3.5 million to investors.

Keranen, who used to live in Woodland Hills but now resides in Oregon, was charged in June with taking nearly $4 million in cash and real estate from California Anchor Group after fraudulently enticing investors with claims of 25% yearly returns on their investments.

The company was supposed to build and sell San Fernando Valley apartment complexes, but prosecutors said only about 3% of the investors’ money went into such developments.

Keranen later pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and two counts of mail fraud.

“I committed the crimes,” Keranen said tearfully during his sentencing hearing. “I did wrong.”

Robert Dumas and Ronald Stoliar, California Anchor vice presidents, pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Stoliar was placed on five years probation by Byrne.

Dumas, who was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, did not appear and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Keranen has filed for bankruptcy and his attorney said he had about $100,000 available for restitution.

A handful of California Anchor investors watched the sentencing and left with little hope of ever getting much of their money back.

“The chances are about as good as getting a glass of ice water in hell,” said Terry Thomason, a Canoga Park investor who said his family lost $250,000 in the scam.