Former House Republican Sentenced to 22 Months in Prison
Former long-serving House Republican Stephen Buyer will spend the next 22 months in prison after he was convicted earlier this year of insider trading.
Fox News reported the 64-year-old was ordered on Wednesday to spend most of the next two years in a federal corrections facility after it was determined by a court that he profited from insider information when he bought stock for the company Navigant.
According to the report, Buyer had advance knowledge the company was going to be sold before it became public and he bought in.
Buyer was also convicted for allegedly trading shares of Sprint with apparent prior knowledge of the company’s merger with T-Mobile.
Buyer was tried in the Southern District of New York.
In a news release from U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who tried the case, Buyer was accused of having “abused positions of trust.”
“Stephen Buyer was convicted by a jury of twice engaging in insider trading,” Williams said. “He abused positions of trust for illicit personal gain, and today he faced justice for those acts.”
The U.S. attorney concluded, “No insider trader is above the law, and we will continue to bring those who undermine the fairness and integrity of our markets to justice.”
The Justice Department accused Buyer of having stolen information that was used to profit from the trades.
“In 2018 and 2019, BUYER engaged in two separate, but interrelated insider trading schemes to steal material non-public information that he obtained through consulting work and to place timely, profitable securities trades based on that stolen information,” the DOJ said.
Buyer will report to prison on Nov. 28 and must also pay a fine of $10,000.
Additionally, Fox News reported, the former congressman will be forced to pay back the $354,027 that was profited from the trades.
He was first arrested by federal agents in July of last year.
Buyer was first elected to the House in 1992, and he represented Indiana’s 4th congressional district until 2011.
The former lawmaker was one of the House managers in the impeachment trial of then-president Bill Clinton in 1998.
Prior to running for public office, Buyer served as a reserve captain in the U.S. Army during the Persian Gulf War.
He ascended to the rank of Colonel before he retired from military service.
Buyer chaired the House Veteran’s Committee from 2005 to 2007 and was its ranking member from 2007 until his retirement in 2011.
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