"TierOne was not a mom and pop store that you and your co-conspirators could operate at your whim," he said.

It wasn't about trying to drag the bank into the gutter, Gerrard said. It was about trying to keep regulators at bay long enough for the market to come back or to work out a merger.

While he got heart-wrenching letters from Lundstrom's family, he said, he got even more heart-wrenching letters from those who suffered as a result of his actions.

"There are no winners in this sad tale. Only losers," Gerrard said before sentencing Lundstrom to 11 years in federal prison and fining him $1.2 million.

He'll make a decision about restitution later. After a morning-long hearing, the judge found shareholders' loss to be $24.4 million for sentencing purposes, but he made it clear that number could change.

Attorney Henry Van Dyke of the U.S. Department of Justice Fraud Division said Lundstrom always put his interests first, even taking $70,000 to stay on as a paid consultant after he retired in January 2010, knowing the bank was on its last legs.

"When you look at the offense conduct here, what you see is a man who was comfortable gambling with other people's money and other people's lives," Van Dyke said.