DENVER—Two days before Joe Nacchio is to be sentenced for $52 million in illegal stock sales, prosecutors fired back Wednesday at the former Qwest Communications chief’s bid for a new trial.
Nacchio, 58, faces prison, fines and a forfeiture of assets when he is sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court. A jury convicted him in April of 19 insider trading counts, determining Nacchio knew the telecommunications company was at risk but didn’t tell investors.
In a June filing, Nacchio’s attorneys claimed the jurors were exposed to damaging pretrial publicity and asked the judge to grant him a new trial in a new city or acquit him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Traskos rebuffed the claim, noting in his brief eight of the 10 potential jurors who said they had been exposed to unfavorable coverage were excused during the selection process.
The other two remained on the panel after defense attorneys declined to use challenges to remove them, Traskos said.
“In short, these facts do not even approach a showing that defendant was deprived of a fair jury by pretrial publicity,” he wrote.
Nacchio was indicted on 43 counts of insider trading but the jury in April acquitted him of 23 while convicting him on the other 19 based on stock sales in April and May of 2001. He remains free on bail and has said he will appeal the conviction.
Each insider trading count carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million, but the sentence likely will be adjusted under federal guidelines that take into account actions which either made the situation worse or better.
Prosecutors have recommended a maximum of seven years and three months in prison, a maximum fine of $19 million and forfeiture of $52 million in assets, which is the gross amount earned on the sale. Defense attorneys have asked for an unspecified lesser sentence.
Separately, Nacchio and four other one-time executives at Denver-based Qwest Communications International Inc. are named in a pending lawsuit alleging they orchestrated a financial fraud that forced the company to restate $2.2 billion in revenue.
