US court upholds insider trading conviction

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a stock trader nicknamed "the Octopussy" because he reached for so much inside information.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Zvi Goffer and two others today. The Israeli-born Goffer was convicted with two others in 2011 in a conspiracy to pay bribes to two lawyers at a Manhattan law firm. The nickname is a reference to a James Bond film.
Goffer was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors said he arranged to pay two attorneys nearly USD 100,000 in 2007 and 2008 for inside tips on mergers and acquisitions.

The case was part of a prosecution that made extensive use of wiretaps. At the time, prosecutors called it the biggest insider trading case in history.