the real motive of his accusers was to just make an example out of him. There were others who were involved much deeper with insider trading who were not punished as severely as your friend was.
You're correct, DC. My friend was a victim of CEO-prosecution-envy. Law is a competitive business. High-profile convictions cement prosecutors' careers. After some US Attorneys nailed the CEO's of Adelphia, Worldcomm, HealthSouth, etc., the US Attorney in Denver wanted his share of glory. My friend was a sitting duck for him. He was an Italian-American with a Brooklyn accent, running one of Denver's biggest companies. The media resented him as a "carpetbagger" because he flew back to NJ every weekend to be with his family. He ran his company's stock way up, and his employees liked that. But, many of them, greedily put every cent they had in the company's stock. When his company's stock got caught in the general telecom meltdown (which affected every carrier), he was made the scapegoat. The US Attorney knew that not a single juror would be on my friend's side. The judge was a bigot who later had to resign from the bench. My friend never had a chance.
