It’s final.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the 12 years and seven months prison sentence of former Cendant Corp. Chairman Walter Forbes for his conviction of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of making false statements. He is also required to pay more than $3 billion in restitutions.

Cendant Ex-Chairman Found Guilty

Exposed in April 1998, this the longest-running white-collar criminal saga can to a close yesterday when Walter Forbes, former CEO of Comp-U-Card International,  was convicted in $252 million earnings overstatement causing investors to loose $14 billion. Sentencing is scheduled for January 17, 2007. HFS merged with CUC in 1997 to create Cendant has never really recovered from the fraud fallout scandal and earlier this year separated into four public companies.