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A former Indiana congressman was sentenced Tuesday to 22 months in prison for his insider trading conviction for making illegal stock trades while working as a consultant and lobbyist.
Steve Buyer, 64, whose congressional career stretched from 1993 to 2011, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Richard M. Berman. The judge also ordered Buyer to forfeit $354,027, representing the amount of illegal gains, and to pay a $10,000 fine.
The judge said Buyer’s conviction by a jury in March was not a close call because the case against him “screams guilty,” and he concluded that Buyer lied when he testified at his trial about when he learned about mergers that he profited from.
Berman noted that he had previously rejected claims that Buyer, a Republican, was unjustly prosecuted or that he could not obtain a fair trial in Manhattan because the population of New York City favors Democrats. Berman named six suburban counties outside of the city where jurors were also drawn from.
Buyer, a lawyer and Persian Gulf War veteran, once chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs committee and was a House prosecutor at ex-President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial.
Buyer was convicted in connection with insider trading involving the $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, and illegal trades in the management consulting company Navigant when his client Guidehouse was set to acquire it in a deal publicly disclosed weeks later.
Defense lawyers had requested home confinement and community service as a punishment while prosecutors urged a three-year prison sentence.
Buyer was ordered to report to prison on Nov. 28.
Prior to being sentenced, Buyer, who is from Noblesville, told the judge he should visit Indiana, where someone buying a dozen ears of corn for $6 off the back of an unmanned trailer might put the money in a container that already has $300 in it without worrying that anybody will snatch the cash.
“It’s an honor system. It’s how we live. It’s how I’ve lived my life,” he said.
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If only we could prosecute and convict active members of congress while they are in office, of these same crimes.
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Funny how in Congress it isn’t illegal…but in our world it is illegal.
Clark
Excellent point Clark!
As Nancy and Paulie P have generated seven figures on insider trading….Not right for any of them on either side. Congressman and Senators going to DC to get rich was never what the “Framers” were expecting.
Insider trading is illegal whether you are a member of Congress or a small town merchants. The challenge is obtaining evidence about the misdeed and the intent to commit it – and for prosecutors to have the confidence that their investigation and prosecution with persuade a jury to convict.
I’m not sure I understand Buyer’s comment to the judge. He’s arguing that he didn’t trade on inside information about impending mergers because in Indiana we put cash in a cash jar at the farmers market? Maybe I’m missing some context, but what does that even mean?
Here was what he should have said: “I dedicated my life to serving our nation, and in a moment of weakness and greed, I made a huge mistake for my own benefit. I regret that moment and that mistake and I hope you’ll take the totality of my life contributions into effect when sentencing me for this inexcusable failing.”
Something tells me that might have been more persuasive with a Manhattan judge than “we Hoosiers put cash in the tin at the farmers market.”
The judge should have also requested a mental health evaluation with that stupid comment he made.
Well this is a good start but there’s a lot more that need to be investigated and sentenced to some hard time for insider trading