Kansas City, Mo. ? A federal appeals court has granted former Westar Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Wittig’s request to review appeals in his looting and bank fraud convictions together in September.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, issued late Tuesday, could help Wittig in his attempt to get out of prison, where he has been since January.

Wittig was convicted in July 2003 of conspiring with banker Clinton Odell Weidner II, of Topeka, to hide a $1.5 million loan from federal regulators and bank officials and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson allowed Wittig to remain free while awaiting his appeal of the conviction.

In September, Wittig and Westar’s former chief strategy officer, Douglas Lake, were convicted of numerous counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and circumventing internal controls at the Topeka-based utility they led until late 2002. Prosecutors said the two men had engineered numerous schemes to “loot” Westar by increasing their compensation and hiding it from shareholders and company directors.

Wittig was again allowed to be free on appeal, but Robinson revoked that in January when she determined Wittig had violated terms of his release.

In February, the 10th Circuit ruled on Wittig’s appeal of the bank fraud case, upholding the conviction but ordering him and Weidner resentenced, saying Robinson had erred in calculating the amount of financial damage the two men had done.

On April 3, Robinson sentenced Wittig to 18 years in prison for the looting charges and denied his request to be released pending appeal, noting that he was already serving time for the bank fraud case.

Two weeks later, she resentenced Wittig in the bank fraud case, lengthening it to 60 months.

Wittig has appealed the longer sentence, saying it still violates the appeals court’s February order and should be reduced to six months or less. His attorneys note that by mid-July, he will have served those six months.

If the appeals court agrees to reduce the sentence, Wittig’s attorneys argue, they could then ask the court to release Wittig from prison while awaiting his appeal to overturn the looting convictions.

The Denver-based appeals court last week agreed to hear Wittig’s appeal on the looting convictions during its Sept. 25 hearing.