OAN’s James Meyers
1:19 PM – Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Stephen Buyer, a former Republican legislator who served almost 20 years in Congress, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for insider trading on Tuesday.
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Stephen Buyer, 64, is a former U.S. representative from Indiana who served in his position from 1993 to 2011. He was convicted earlier this year for operating off insider information after leaving office.
Buyer was charged on four counts of securities fraud related to a pair of insider trading schemes in 2018 and 2019. He was also ordered to forfeit the $354,027 he had gained from the trades in addition to a $10,000 fine.
The conviction came shortly after he purchased stocks in Navigant, which is a management company that one of Buyer’s clients, Guidehouse, was set to purchase weeks later. Later on, he purchased shares of Sprint after finding out about the phone company’s future plans to merge with T-Mobile.
The 22-month sentence was less than the 36-month imprisonment originally requested by prosecutors.
“Stephen Buyer was convicted by a jury of twice engaging in insider trading. He abused positions of trust for illicit personal gain, and today he faced justice for those acts. No insider trader is above the law, and we will continue to bring those who undermine the fairness and integrity of our markets to justice,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Buyer “misappropriated material non-public information” that he learned as a consultant and used that information to “place timely, profitable securities trades in brokerage accounts in his own name and the names of others.”
During the trial, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman accused Buyer of obstruction of justice for providing false explanations for his trades to the court.
Buyer’s legal team pleaded and urged the judge to sentence him to house arrest and community service.
The prosecution pleaded for Buyer to pay an additional $1.4 million to cover the cost of legal fees for both sides, but the judge declined the request.
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