Trial of former Qwest exec set to begin

[El Supremo]

DENVER - The much-anticipated trial of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio begins with jury selection on Monday.

Nacchio faces 42 counts of insider trading for allegedly selling over $100 million in Qwest shares in early 2001. Each count carries with it a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

His defense is expected to argue Nacchio believed the company was not on the verge of collapse when he sold his stock. Part of his defense is expected to rely on Nacchio's access to secret government information which he says led him to believe the company was in the running for lucrative government contracts.

Prosecutors will argue Nacchio sold his stock while he had internal information that told him the company was in serious trouble.

Qwest shares fell from $38 in May 2001 to a little over $1 the following year...

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=66497

[unhappycamper]

1. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Nacchio is the Ken Lay of the RBOC bidness.

[lilymidnite]

2. I hope they skin his sorry butt

[Omaha Steve]

3. Ex-Qwest CEO Insider Trade Trial to Open

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8nu6hco0&

Ex-Qwest CEO Insider Trade Trial to Open

Saturday March 17, 6:15 PM EDT

DENVER (AP) — The insider-trading case opening Monday against the former head of one the nation's largest telecoms could hinge on the interpretation of secret government deals and what a CEO should be expected to know about his company.

Joseph Nacchio, former CEO of Denver-based Qwest Communications, is charged with improperly selling $101 million of stock months before the telephone service provider for 14 mostly Western states became mired in a multibillion dollar accounting scandal. Prosecutors claim Nacchio, a Brooklyn-born former AT&T executive, sold his stock while knowing the company was at financial risk. Shares of Qwest Communications International Inc. plummeted from more than $60 a share in 2000 to just $2 a share in 2002 and its near-collapse left thousands of pensioners in financial straits.

Nacchio has an unusual defense: The sale wasn't improper, he maintains, because he believed Qwest stood at the time to get millions in secret contracts from clandestine government agencies. Within Qwest, he alone was privy to the contracts, he says.

The contracts are a key point of evidence. Both sides have agreed financial data from the contracts will be used at trial, through the agencies involved will remain secret.

FULL story at link.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Nacchio:

While no choirboy, he was one of the only telco CEO's who would not let the NSA sift his company's telecommunications traffic without a court order.

And then he gets indicted. Funny how that sort of thing works.

[AnnieBW]

5. Qwest was seriously F*cked Over By Nacchio

My husband used to work for them. Nacchio and a whole bunch of former MCI/Worldcom people tried to make it into Worldcom Jr. Our Qwest ESOs weren't worth the paper that they were printed on.