Judge Goes Easy on Insider-Trading Lawyer Couple
A lawyer couple who pleaded guilty to insider trading will not have to spend any time in prison.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of New York noted that defendant Christopher Collotta, 34, suffers from heart problems caused by a battle with cancer, the New York Law Journal reports. Collotta was sentenced to three years of probation and six months of home confinement.
His wife, Randi Collotta, 30, was sentenced to four years of probation, six months of home confinement and 60 days in a halfway house, to be spent on nights and weekends, Newsday reports.
The couple will also have to forfeit the $9,000 compensation they made for passing along a stock tip to a friend. The friend and others who traded on the information made $600,000.
A lawyer for Ms. Collotta said she needed to stay out of prison so she could care for her husband and keep working at a job that provides health insurance for him. Ms. Collotta cried during the proceedings and said did not want to be away from her husband.
“I fear that he will die without his wife and his best friend by his side,” she said.
