Thaindian News

Sep 14 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Robert Moffat spent 31 years working for IBM and is now facing six months in prison after he plead guilty in March, and admitted that he has given out inside information about the company, and well as Lenovo, and AMD, in a huge twenty five million dollar insider trading scam.

Moffat was senior vice president and group executive of the twenty billion dollar Systems and Technology Group when he was arrested back in October of 2009. He has admitted that he passed out information about the finances of IBM, as well and the financial earnings of Lenovo. He also told a friend, Danielle Chiesi who is a portfolio manager with the New Castle Funds hedge fund, of the efforts by Advanced Micro Devices to spin off their manufacturing business in order to create Globalfoundries.

No longer working for IBM, Moffat pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud and conspiracy. Although he asked the court for a sentence of probation, it was denied by the US District Court Judge Deborah Batts. In a Manhattan court room, Batts stated that the crimes which Moffat had committed were just as harmful as violent crimes were.

According to ‘Bloomberg News’, Batt stated, “White-collar crime is just as destructive to our social fabric as the crimes of drugs and violence. There is a need in the sentence imposed to promote respect for the law.”

Batt was also given a $50,000 fine which he wil have to pay when he is released in six months. She expressed her confusion as to why Moffat would betray his company, “Why the defendant betrayed the only employer he has had for his entire career has not been addressed. His astounding breach of his fiduciary duty to his employer is why he is here.”

Moffat apologized, and took full responsibility for his actions.