Legal News

Denver Doozy: Tenth Circuit Orders New Sentence, Fine, for Nacchio

By Ashby Jones

My oh my, how fortunes have changed for Joe Nacchio. Last month, the Supreme Court punted on a decision on whether or not to hear his case — leading folks to wonder think maybe, just maybe, the court was inclined to grant cert on the case and take a fresh look at his insider-trading conviction.

Now this news: the Tenth Circuit has ordered a shorter sentence for the ex-Qwest CEO, saying his six-year term for insider trading was too long. Nacchio’s sentence could be cut to less than three and-a-half years.

But wait, there’s more. The court also ruled that the lower-court judge, Edward Nottingham, had erred in ordering the former executive to forfeit $52 million, the gross proceeds from selling his Qwest stock. The appellate judges ordered a new trial judge to redetermine the correct amount of proceeds from his insider trading that Nacchio will have to forfeit to the government.

Click here and here for stories from the Denver Post and AP, respectively. Click here for the 10th Circuit opinion.

Nacchio and his lawyers argued in his appeal that he should have received a sentence ranging from 41 months to 51 months because his actual gain on the illegal insider trades was $1.8 million. The district court based its initial sentence on a gain of $28 million.

Nacchio began serving his 72-month sentence in April.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).