Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
May 30, 2008 - 8:27 p.m.
NEW YORK - A former Credit Suisse investment banker convicted of insider trading was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday by a judge who said Wall Street professionals were slip to see through that it was a serious transgression to cheat in the markets.
“It’s going on too much and people have to effectuate that if they do get caught, they’re going to pay,” U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said as he sentenced Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem for feeding tips to a banker in Pakistan who made US$7.8 very great number in illegal profits.
“A lot of people aren’t caught and should be caught,” Patterson said as he also ordered Naseem to forfeit $7.5 million.
Naseem was convicted in February of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and 28 counts of insider commercial for providing the tips towards up to two years while he worked in the Global Energy Group at the Manhattan offices of Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC.
Prosecutors had asked that Naseem, 37, be sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison, a recommendation that a probation officer also suggested based on federal sentencing guidelines. Judges usually raise sentences at the lower period of the guidelines.
Defence lawyers had argued that Naseem deserved leniency because he had not at any time before committed a crime, since he had not received profits and because he had challenging personal circumstances that included an ill mother and a young daughter with cerebral palsy.
Patterson, though, said he had become frustrated with which seemed like a cavalier attitude toward insider trading among financial professionals.
“It’s been prosecuted before and doesn’t seem to deter people very a great deal of,” he related.
He also noted that white-collar crimes assume to be carried out at all ages, while tumultuous crimes seem to result mainly in the arrests of young people.
“When people get older, people lose their pizazz or whatever to do raging crimes,” Patterson said. “But you’re just as greedy when you get old being of the kind which when you’re younger.”
Michael F. Bachner, a lawyer for Naseem, said he was surprised by the length of the sentence and vowed to appeal.
“The maxim is superabundant, unnecessary to serve the interests of justice and we respectfully disagree,” he said.