DENVER-
Former Qwest Communications Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio wants access to responses to 1,000 questionaires sent to the jury pool in his insider trading trail, according to documents filed Thursday.
“We intend to seek a new trial, among other reasons, on the grounds that error may have been committed in the manner in which the expanded jury venire pool of 1,000 was winnowed down to 78 persons,” according to documents filed in U.S. District Court, “for the Court has never explained how this occurred.”
Nacchio’s attorneys, whose change of venue request was rejected, said they were promised the court would work “very hard” on ensuring negative publicity surrounding the case didn’t affect the jury pool. Among the grounds for automatic disqualification were whether potential jurors had a prior employment, business, or financial relationship with Qwest.
Nacchio was convicted of dumping $52 million in stock in 2001 while concealing from investors information that Qwest used one-time sales transactions to achieve revenue targets.
In a three-week trial, prosecutors hammered the concept that Nacchio lied to investors while selling stock as Qwest battled aggressive competition in a weakening economy. In her closing argument, prosecutor Colleen Conry quipped: “If you don’t tell, you can’t sell.”
Defense attorneys insisted Nacchio was optimistic about Qwest’s prospects and set higher internal financial projections to push executives into performing better. They said Nacchio wanted to resign in January 2001 because of a family crisis, an indication he wasn’t acting on inside information.
A jury deliberated six days before acquitting him on 23 counts and convicting him on 19 for transactions that occurred in April and May—after Denver-Qwest released its 2001 first-quarter results.
Nacchio did not testify.
The case grew out of a multibillion-dollar scandal that forced Qwest to restate $2.2 billion of revenue. Federal regulators have said Qwest falsely reported fiber-optic capacity sales as recurring instead of one-time revenue between April 1999 and March 2002, a practice that allowed it to improperly report about $3 billion in revenue.
Nacchio is to be sentenced July 27 by U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham. Each count carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine
In a separate filing Thursday, prosecutors formally asked the court to force Nacchio to forfeit the $52 million in gross proceeds.
