Reduced Sentence for Executive Convicted for Insider Trading
Posted on Aug 5, 2009 11:53am PDT
Recently, an appeals court agreed to reduce the sentence for Joseph P. Nacchio, the former executive of Qwest Communications International. Nacchio had been convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in 2007 and was ordered to spend 6 years in jail. However, his lawyers recently filed an appeal and argued that the sentence was too long. The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed and ruled that the judge that presided over Nacchio's trial had overstated the amount of the defendant's financial gain.
In 2007, prosecutors said that Nacchio had sold over $52 million in Qwest stock when he discovered that the company was facing financial problems. Nacchio concealed his sale from the public, which led to his being charged with insider trading.
This Friday, a panel of 3 judges agreed with Nacchio's defense attorneys that the $52 million figure was too high. Instead of using that figure, they said that the judge should have based his decision on the net profit that resulted from the illegal insider trading.
The appeals court did not state what Nacchio's sentence should have been or announce what his fine should be. Instead, they will allow the lower court to rule on these issues.
At this time, Nacchio has appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, but was ordered to begin serving his jail time in April. He is currently housed in a minimum-security prison, Pennsylvania Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill satellite camp, which is located in Minersville, PA.
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