DENVER—Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review his insider-trading conviction, raising questions about the fairness of the judge at his trial.
Nacchio also asked a federal judge in Denver to reconsider his request to remain free on bail during his Supreme Court appeal.
Nacchio was convicted in 2007 of 19 counts of insider trading and acquitted of 23 counts. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, but the full court reinstated it last month.
Nacchio, who has remained free on bail since his conviction, was to have reported to a minimum-security prison camp in Minersville, Pa., on Monday, but a federal judge stayed that order Thursday while she reviews Nacchio’s request to allow him to remain free.
Nacchio’s attorneys said in the Supreme Court filing that Nacchio’s trial judge, U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham, “openly displayed ethnic bias against the defendant and his counsel and recently resigned in disgrace in a lurid prostitution and obstruction of justice scandal.”
Nottingham once questioned in court why Nacchio, “the son of Italian immigrants … in New Jersey and New York, should ever have come out here to Colorado.”
Nottingham resigned last year after KUSA-TV in Denver, citing anonymous sources, reported allegations that he solicited prostitutes and asked one to lie about his being a client.
Court documents later confirmed that an appellate judge had filed a complaint that Nottingham had patronized prostitutes.
Nottingham’s attorney, Stephen Peters, didn’t immediately return a call Friday. In October, Peters issued a statement saying Nottingham was deeply remorseful for his actions and “sincerely apologizes to the public and judiciary.”
Nacchio’s attorneys also asked the Supreme Court to review whether the instructions to Nacchio’s trial jury were proper, whether a defense expert was properly barred from testifying and what should be considered material information that needs to be disclosed.
“In several other circuits, the allegations against Nacchio would have been dismissed as a matter of law even in a civil case,” they wrote. “The proper standard is a matter of great national importance and merits review.”
A spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette declined to comment.
Prosecutors allege Nacchio sold $52 million in Qwest Communications International Inc. stock based on nonpublic information that the Denver-based telecommunications company might miss its sales targets.
The three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit said he deserved a new trial, ruling that Nottingham improperly barred expert testimony that could have explained Nacchio’s trading patterns and stock price movements. The full court disagreed in a 5-4 ruling that said Nottingham acted within his discretion.
Nacchio’s attorneys also have asked the U.S. District Court in Denver for a new trial.
Nacchio still faces a civil suit, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing him and four other former Qwest employees of scheming to artificially boost Qwest’s stock price.
Earlier, Nacchio asked for a two-week delay in the date he was to report to prison so he could get a followup checkup with a doctor who removed a growth from his leg, but a judge rejected that request after Nacchio learned this week that the growth was benign.
