Court Reinstates Conviction of Former Qwest CEO (Joe Nacchio)

[kpete]

Source: Associated Press

Court Reinstates Conviction of Former Qwest CEO

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 25, 2009

Filed at 1:53 p.m. ET

DENVER (AP) -- A federal appeals court reinstated the insider trading conviction of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio on Wednesday and said he could be ordered to begin serving a 6-year prison sentence.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned the conviction last year, ruling that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from a defense witness.

But on a 5-4 vote, the full 10th Circuit said Wednesday the trial court was ''well within its discretion'' to keep the witness off the stand.

The four dissenting judges disagreed strongly. ''We have nagging doubts about the district judge's sense of fairness toward this defendant. If the decision here was not an abuse of discretion, we wonder what one would look like,'' they wrote.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/25/technology/AP-Qwest-Nacchio-Appeal.html?_r=2

[OnyxCollie]

1. Bullshit.

Covering up for domestic surveillance and insider trading by bushco. Let's see the classified government contracts and find out who's being spied on.

Good luck, Mr. Nacchio.

[Hawkeye-X]

2. Nottingham needs to go to prison as well.

If you see his stupidity, the judge himself needs to go to prison for a time.

1) Used a credit card, blacked out, and lied about it - even though his ex-wife found out about it (hence, the divorce)
2) Parked in a handicapped parking lot when he himself is NOT handicapped.
3) More sheningans.

Google 9news and Nottingham, and you will find the stories.

[olegramps]

3. Great news. Just hope the Supreme Court Republicans don't overturn it.

[OnyxCollie]

5. Not good news.

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio was asked by the NSA to start eavesdropping on Americans seven months BEFORE 9/11. He refused to play along. He was prohibited from bringing in classified government contracts to support his claim.

The insider trading charges are to punish him and keep him from talking.

[seafan]

4. Well, now isn't this interesting. Nacchio said "No" to Bush's demands for wiretapping.

Phone Companies Muzzled On Eavesdropping, October 16, 2007

However, last week a Colorado court unsealed documents in the case of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, who was convicted of insider trading in April. Nacchio, who is appealing his conviction, maintains the National Security Agency asked Qwest to allow it to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order in February 2001, six months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

From Glen Greenwald at Salon:

October 15, 2007

Nacchio -- who was convicted earlier this year of insider trading for selling his Qwest shares with insider knowledge that the company was about to lose substantial value -- is attempting to prove that, at the time he sold his shares, he anticipated that Qwest would receive highly lucrative government contracts (for surveillance and other programs) that were being negotiated almost immediately upon Bush's inauguration in 2001 -- months before the 9/11 attacks (the bulk of those projects was ultimately awarded to AT&T, Verizon and others).

To prove that, Nacchio has submitted voluminous (and heavily redacted) documentation (.pdf) detailing the vast number of projects which the Bush administration (and, to a lesser extent, the Clinton administration) was pursuing in joint cooperation with the telecom industry. Those documents were released last week, and there are two critical points that become crystal clear from reviewing them:

.....

Nacchio's conviction was overturned in 2008. It looks like the Bush hacks weren't deterred by that:


Court Reinstates Conviction of Former Qwest CEO, February 25, 2009

DENVER (AP) -- A federal appeals court reinstated the insider trading conviction of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio on Wednesday and said he could be ordered to begin serving a 6-year prison sentence.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had overturned the conviction last year, ruling that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from a defense witness.

But on a 5-4 vote, the full 10th Circuit said Wednesday the trial court was ''well within its discretion'' to keep the witness off the stand.

The four dissenting judges disagreed strongly. ''We have nagging doubts about the district judge's sense of fairness toward this defendant. If the decision here was not an abuse of discretion, we wonder what one would look like,'' they wrote.

.....

Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette said the ruling means ''justice has been served.''

Former U.S. Attorney Troy Eid, who helped oversee the government's case against Nacchio, said he never doubted the conviction would be reinstated.

''It's exactly as it should have been from the get-go,'' he said.

.....

Remember, this is Troy "I don't have an Abramoff problem" Eid, a Bush-appointed hack US Attorney, who resigned one day before Obama was inaugurated.


Good riddance.


Hopefully, Nacchio will appeal his case, and we will hear more about the infinite scope of Bush's illegal domestic wiretapping.


Mr. President, the now-remaining 50 Bush-installed US Attorneys at DOJ need to be jettisoned. Please do not wait much longer.

[MasonJar]

6. This is NOT good news. This allegation of wrong doing sprang

from Qwest's refusal to spy for Bush. I imagine the judge was in the Bushista pocket.

[Doctor_J]

7. Obama should pardon him

This was a political prosecution.