Ex-Qwest chief gets six years
DENVER — Former Qwest Communications chief executive Joe Nacchio was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for making $52 million in illegal stock sales while a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal brought the telecommunications company to the brink of bankruptcy.
U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham also ordered Nacchio to forfeit the $52 million within 15 days, imposed a maximum $19 million fine and ordered him to serve two years’ probation after serving his sentence.
The judge denied Nacchio’s request to be granted bail while he appeals his conviction. He ordered Nacchio to report to authorities within 15 days once a federal prison is chosen for him.
Nacchio, 58, a former AT&T executive, is among the latest in a string of former top-level executives to be convicted in corporate fraud scandals targeted by a government task force established in 2002.
He was convicted in April of making the stock sales at a time when he knew Qwest faced financial risk but didn’t tell investors. He had faced a maximum term of seven years, three months in prison.
“The crimes the defendant has been found guilty of are crimes of overarching greed,” Nottingham said.
With his attorney, Herbert Stern, at his side, Nacchio stood before the judge as he was sentenced, his hands clasped firmly in front of him. He then turned to look at his wife, Anne, and son Michael, and nodded slightly.
“The crimes the defendant has been found guilty of are crimes of overarching greed,” Nottingham said.
Nacchio declined a chance to testify during Friday’s hearing, but he approached the bench at the very end, saying he wanted to speak with the judge. Nottingham told him he’d had his chance. “I promise it will be respectful,” Nacchio replied. The judge then recessed the trial, leaving Nacchio standing there.
Nottingham earlier denied a defense motion for an acquittal and for a new trial, dismissing claims that jurors were swayed by damaging pretrial publicity.
“This was an extraordinary jury,” he said. “In this court’s view, the verdict takes a rational view of the evidence.”
At one point, the judge told Nacchio he was going to prison despite Nacchio’s pleas for leniency because of the health of his other son, David, who attempted suicide seven years ago. Stern said Nacchio was a critical person to his son’s well-being and that the length of prison time “can make a difference.”
Thousands of investors lost money when Qwest Communications International Inc.’s stock price plummeted from more than $60 a share in 2000 to just $2 a share in 2002. The scandal forced Qwest, a primary telephone service provider in 14 mostly Western states, to restate $2.2 billion in revenue.