Kansas City, Mo. ? Former Westar Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Wittig is asking a federal appeals court to take over his sentencing for bank fraud.

Attorneys for Wittig filed papers Wednesday saying the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing his 24-month sentence and has overturned two previous sentences in the case, should sentence the former executive to time served.

Wittig served almost 13 months in prison before being released on bond in February.

In the least, the attorneys argued, the Denver-based court should stop U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson from deviating from federal sentencing guidelines, which they said call for a six-month prison term.

“The court should vacate Mr. Wittig’s sentence and hold that it would be unreasonable to impose any additional term of imprisonment,” Wittig’s attorneys wrote.

Robinson went above the six-month guideline in February when she imposed the 24-month sentence, saying the shorter term “failed to reflect the seriousness of the offense.”

Wittig was convicted in July 2003 of loaning $1.5 million to Clinton Odell Weidner II, a former bank president, then helping him hide the transaction from bank and regulatory officials.

The appeals court threw out previous prison sentences of 51 and 60 months for Wittig, saying calculations in determining the sentences were flawed and the sentences were far longer than guidelines allow.

The three-judge panel in November said the maximum penalty Wittig could receive under federal sentencing guidelines is six months. The guidelines are not mandatory, but judges are required to justify departing from them.

In her decision, Robinson said sentencing Wittig to just six months would treat his crime like a “misdemeanor” and encourage future criminals to structure their fraudulent transactions like his to avoid serious penalties. She also justified going beyond the sentencing guidelines because the six-month term didn’t recognize that Wittig was an active participant in the crime and benefited from it.

She said she also felt six months was too short compared with Weidner’s five-year sentence.

Wittig’s attorneys argue he received little if any benefit from the transaction and Weidner should be held to a higher standard as he was a bank official and Wittig was simply a customer.

His attorneys also are asking the appeals court to dismiss a condition Robinson imposed for his release on bond, requiring court approval before Wittig could serve as an executive at a company or engage in any financial dealings on behalf of that company.

The case is separate from Wittig’s indictment on charges that he and former Chief Strategy Officer Douglas Lake attempted to loot Westar of millions of dollars in extra compensation and hide it from company officials and shareholders.

The two were convicted in 2005 but those convictions were overturned earlier this year with the appeals court ordering that the most serious charges couldn’t be retried.

Robinson has scheduled a retrial on charges of conspiracy and circumventing of internal controls for January.