Topeka ? Attorneys for two former executives convicted this week of federal bank fraud said their clients probably wouldn’t get anywhere near the maximum sentences for their crimes.

The maximum combined sentences for David Wittig and Clinton Odell Weidner II are 135 years for six felony convictions each — if they get the maximum sentence on each charge and the sentences run consecutively.

Jim Eisenbrandt, who defended Wittig, and Robert Eye, who represented Weidner, said their clients had no criminal history and should receive concurrent sentences. Wittig, former CEO of Westar Energy, and Weidner, former president of Capital City Bank in Topeka, are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 20 in U.S. District Court in Topeka.

Eye believes the sentences for the two probably will be less than 10 years. Both defense attorneys said there was no monetary loss in the case, so that should help their clients at sentencing.

A federal court jury on Monday convicted Wittig, 47, of one count of conspiracy, one count of money laundering and four counts of submitting false bank entries.

Weidner, 50, pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial to two counts of submitting false bank entries. He was convicted Monday of one count of conspiracy, one count of money laundering and two counts of submitting false bank entries.

The case centered on a $1.5 million loan Wittig made to Weidner after the bank president increased Wittig’s credit limit by that amount.

According to papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the conspiracy conviction has a maximum prison term of five years, the money laundering charge has a top sentence of 10 years, and each of the four counts of submitting false bank entries carries a maximum 30-year term.

“It means nothing,” Eye said of the maximum possible sentences.

There is no parole from a federal prison sentence, but inmates can cut up to 54 days a year from their sentence for “good time.”

Eye said judges rarely imposed fines on criminals during sentencing, but in this case it’s a possibility. Wittig’s balance sheet showed he had assets of $31.67 million in January 2002, and Weidner is a former bank president, so the two might be fined, Eye said.

The maximum fines listed in court records are $1 million on each count of submitting false bank entries, $250,000 for conspiracy and $250,000 for money laundering.