A former Republican lawmaker was sentenced to 22 months in prison for insider trading on Tuesday.
Stephen Buyer, 64, who served as a U.S. representative from Indiana from 1993 to 2011, was convicted earlier this year for operating off insider information after leaving office. In addition to incarceration, Buyer was ordered to forfeit the $354,027 he had gained with the trades in addition to a $10,000 fine.
Buyer’s conviction arose from his purchase of stocks in Navigant, a management company that one of Buyer’s clients, Guidehouse, was set to purchase weeks later. He also purchased shares of Sprint after learning of the company’s non-public plans to merge with T-Mobile.
‘Stephen Buyer was convicted by a jury of twice engaging in insider trading. He abused positions of trust for illicit personal gain, and today he faced justice for those acts. No insider trader is above the law, and we will continue to bring those who undermine the fairness and integrity of our markets to justice,’ U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday.
Buyer, 64, is scheduled to report to prison on Nov. 28.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman also accused Buyer of obstruction of justice for providing false explanations for his trades to the court.
Buyer, a lawyer and Persian Gulf War veteran once chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs committee and was a House prosecutor at President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial.
Buyer’s lawyers had urged Berman to limit his sentence to home confinement and community service.
Prior to sentencing, the defense told the court that Buyer, who once made as much as $2.2 million in a year, has suffered so much from the cost of litigation that he and his wife have sold most of their assets, including their home, condo and two cars, and his wife will have to return to the workforce at age 65.
Prosecutors had previously pushed for Buyer to pay an additional $1.4 million to cover the cost of legal fees for both sides, but the judge ruled against it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
