|
 Daniel DeVore, 49, pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit
securities fraud and wire fraud for passing confidential information
about Dell and its suppliers.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan sentenced DeVore to time
served plus two years of supervised release. He imposed no fine but
ordered DeVore to forfeit $145,750.
Rakoff noted that many other defendants who provided "vital
assistance" and displayed remorse had similarly avoided prison in
this and related cases.
"It seems to me all of that applies totally to Mr. DeVore and
warrants a sentence not involving incarceration," Rakoff said.
Prosecutors had backed the reduced sentence, which fell below the 18
to 21 months recommended under federal sentencing guidelines.
DeVore, while he was working at Dell, also moonlighted as a
consultant at Primary Global Research, an expert networking firm
that became the focus of a wide crackdown by Manhattan prosecutors
on insider trading.
Expert networking firms like Primary Global pair industry experts
with investors and analysts.
At his guilty plea in December 2010, DeVore admitted that from 2007
through August 2010 he divulged to Primary Global clients
confidential information about Dell and two suppliers, Seagate
Technology PLC and Western Digital Corp.
Among those who received information from DeVore were two analysts
between 2008 and 2009 who went on to share the information with
friends, including Jon Horvath, an analyst at Steven A. Cohen's SAC
Capital hedge fund, prosecutors said in a filing on Wednesday.
Horvath has pleaded guilty and is testifying in the trial of SAC
Capital portfolio manager Michael Steinberg.
Steinberg, 41, is charged with five counts of securities fraud and
conspiracy to commit securities fraud on allegations he traded in
Dell and Nvidia Corp in 2008 and 2009 based on inside information.
While DeVore had been listed as a potential witness in Steinberg's
trial, Antonia Apps, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the
case, wrote in a court filing on Wednesday that he was now unlikely
to be called.
[to top of second column] |
DeVore had previously testified against another Primary Global
employee, former sales manager James Fleishman, who was found guilty
on conspiracy charges and sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison in
2011.
DeVore's own sentence will help close out another of the 76 cases of
individuals convicted since October 2009 as part of the wave of
insider trading cases prosecutors have pursued in New York.
Those included at least eight former consultants and employees at
Primary Global, which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012.
In their filing on Wednesday, prosecutors said DeVore had been
helpful in other investigations by the office of Manhattan U.S.
Attorney Preet Bharara and the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Among the ongoing investigations listed was one of Phani Saripella,
the former chief operating officer at Primary Global, against whom
DeVore "provided incriminating evidence," the document said.
That portion of the filing was redacted, but the text could be read
after it was copied into a word-processing program.
Saripella has not been charged to date. Neither Priya Chaudhry, a
lawyer for Saripella, nor representatives for Bharara responded to
requests for comment.
The case is U.S. v. DeVore, U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York, No. 10-01248.
[By Nate Raymond © 2013 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; editing by Eddie Evans and Dan Grebler) Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
