Ex-KPMG executives sentenced to steep prison terms

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former KPMG KPMG.UL manager convicted of selling improper tax shelters was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 10 years in prison and a former tax partner at the firm received a sentence of more than eight years.

Former KPMG tax partner Robert Pfaff and former senior tax manager John Larson were convicted by a federal jury last December on several counts for evading taxes through a vehicle known as a BLIPS tax shelter.

Larson was sentenced to 121 months by Judge Lewis Kaplan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday and Pfaff to 97 months.

A third person convicted in the case, Raymond Ruble, a former partner at law firm Sidley Austin, was sentenced to six years and six months.

Prosecutors argued Pfaff and Larson should have received as much as 24 years imprisonment under 2008 guidelines, which increased some of the possible penalties for white-collar crimes previously established in 2000.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney and Grant McCool; Editing by Andre Grenon)