Laurence Seidenfeld, 63, San Ramon, California was sentenced to 79 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay restitution of $281,992. Seidenfeld was convicted of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Seidenfeld, who owned CHL Mortgage Group in San Ramon, California allegedly obtained more than $20 million in fraudulent mortgage loans against properties by funding the loans without the consent of the owners by using forged signatures. The loans were then sold multiple times to various warehouse banks, lenders and investors. Of course the conviction and sentencing haven't solved any of the problems associated with the ownership and priority of the liens and the banks, lenders and investors continue to litigate in CHL Mortgage Group's bankruptcy over the priority of the liens and the right to foreclosure on properties that were committed multiple times.

Seidenfeld was previously convicted of bank fraud for altering information in mortgage documents and was sentenced to one day in federal prison followed by three years supervised release. He was charged by information on April 24, 2003 and pled guilty on June 17, 2003 – he was still on probation when he was charged in this scheme. The latest charges were a probation violation in the previous case and resulted in a sentenced of 12 months in federal prison, to run concurrently with the charges in the current case.