Real Estate Executive Gets 6 Years in Fraud

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 jail.

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 and pay back the investors.

Byrne would not agree to the proposal, saying that the fraud was too serious not to merit a standard jail sentence. In sentencing Keranen to six years, Byrne also ordered him to make $3.5 million in restitution to investors.