None of the executives accused of taking part in a "massive financial fraud" at the former telecom equipment maker Vari-L will do any time behind bars.

Three officers, including one- time Chairman Joseph Harold Kiser, were sentenced Friday to probation. David Sherman, the ex-CEO who was expected to testify against Kiser, died of a heart attack in July, dealing a blow to the government's case.

Kiser, who joined Vari-L in 1955, two years after his father founded the company, was silent during and after the hearing in federal court in Denver.

The 69-year-old businessman was given one year of probation and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty in September to a misdemeanor. Prosecutors agreed to drop the original criminal conspiracy, stock fraud and perjury charges after Sherman's death. Those charges had potentially carried a stiff prison sentence.

Jon Clark, named chief financial officer in 1998, was sentenced to 30 months of probation. Clark, bearded and bespectacled, his long hair in a pony tail, offered apologies to former Vari-L shareholders and employees.

"Your honor, please know how deeply shamed, embarrassed and remorseful I am about the crime I've pled guilty to," said Clark, who now lives in Navajo Dam, N.M., and earns a living making and restoring fly rods.

Clark, 60, already had contributed $179,000 to a settlement fund set up to compensate shareholders hurt by the fraud and had paid a $50,000 civil penalty, his lawyers noted.

Clark, whose wife and other family members sat behind him in the courtroom, explained that the case and the legal fees "caused our financial security to be placed in jeopardy."

"Please have no fear that I will break any law in the future," he said, adding that he was eager to return home and to care for his wife, who is confined to a wheelchair after a 1990 car accident.

Judge Robert Blackburn credited Clark for his cooperation. Prosecutors said Clark already had paid more than any of the other Vari-L officers.

"Mr. Clark, you did step up to the plate and attempt to make things right," Blackburn said, adding that he would not impose any type of fine.

The final executive, Sarah -Hume, who had served as Vari-L's controller, was given two years' probation with six months of home detention. She also was fined $3,000. Hume's "cooperation was both important and instrumental in obtaining an indictment" of Sherman, according to recent court papers.

Prosecutors initially had alleged that Kiser and Sherman conspired to inflate the company's revenue to meet or beat Wall Street's expectations and to pump up the stock.

Vari-L became a publicly traded company in 1994 and at one point employed 300 workers at its north Denver headquarters.

But a collapse in the telecom sector and an accounting scandal brought Vari-L down. A California competitor finally picked up the company's remaining assets.

patonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2544