Nacchio: Case Never Should Have Gone To Trial

CATHERINE TSAI

DENVER (AP) — Lawyers for former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio filed a brief Tuesday rebutting federal prosecutors who oppose a Supreme Court review of Nacchio's insider trading conviction, saying he never should have been prosecuted in the first place.

In response to a brief the government filed last month, Nacchio's lawyers wrote that the alleged insider information cited by prosecutors referred to immaterial internal predictions that didn't have to be publicly disclosed.

Nacchio's lawyers argue that "if the internal debates and predictions underlying this prosecution count as 'material inside information' then no company or executive can buy or sell stock, ever, without risking capricious criminal prosecution."

They also repeated arguments that Nacchio's trial judge improperly barred testimony from a financial expert that could have led to an acquittal.

Nacchio's lawyers said the government was choosing expediency over due process and "is willing to drive corporate America and basic fairness off a cliff to preserve its conviction in a case that should never have been brought."

The government argued in a brief filed last month that the trial evidence went beyond the internal predictions. Prosecutors also argued that jurors' conclusion on what information had to be publicly disclosed was reasonable.