Former US Congressman Stephen Buyer has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for insider trading. The former Republican congressman from Indiana was ordered to spend 22 months in prison for trading on inside information about mergers he learned about while working as a consultant after leaving office. He served in Congress from 1993 to 2011.
The sentencing came Tuesday by US District Judge Richard Berman in New York. Buyer was initially found guilty in March of making nearly $350,000 insider trading ahead of T-Mobile US Inc.’s 2018 announcement of plans to acquire Sprint Corp. and Guidehouse Inc.’s 2019 acquisition of Navigant Consulting Inc. Judge Berman says that the former US congressman must report to prison on November 28.
Buyer says he will appeal the ruling and did not discuss the conviction while in court. He testified in his own defense.
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Prosecutors said Buyer learned of the Sprint deal while playing golf with a government affairs executive at T-Mobile in Miami. They also say he learned of the Navigant deal through a conversation with a Guidehouse salesperson.
The ruling comes not long after proposals of banning trading in Congress have begun making rounds. Senators are proposing a bill to ban the President and congressional members from trading stocks.