Joe Nacchio will never again be able to serve as an officer or director of a public company in the United States.
That’s one of the terms of the settlement Nacchio, the imprisoned former CEO of Qwest Communications International Inc., has reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency, which regulates U.S. publicly traded companies, late last week asked a federal judge in Denver, where Qwest is based, to approve the deal.
Nacchio, 61, is serving a six-year prison term for his 2007 insider trading conviction; he illegally sold $52 million of Qwest stock in 2001.
Other terms of the settlement include Nacchio not receiving a civil penalty – he already has been fined $19 million and ordered to forfeit $44.6 million of his trading proceeds. A judge in June reduced the latter by $7.4 million but the SEC agreement would waive Nacchio’s right to appeal the $19 million fine. The AP reported federal officials want to transfer the $44.6 million to a fund that would be distributed to Qwest investors hurt by Nacchio’s insider trading scheme.
Nacchio is serving time at the minimum-security, luxury Schuylkill prison in Minersville, Penn. He is hoping to cut his 70-month sentence by two months but an appeals court has yet to decide on that request.
