Former Indiana congressman sentenced to 22 months for insider trading with major phone company

Former Indiana Republican Rep. Stephen Buyer was sentenced Tuesday in New York to 22 months in prison and was ordered to pay more than $350,000 for insider trading involving a merger of major U.S. cell phone companies.

Buyer, who served nine terms in Congress from 1993-2011, was convicted on four federal counts of securities fraud related to two insider trading schemes that lasted from 2018 through 2019 using information he obtained as a consultant, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Working as a consultant to T-Mobile, Buyer, 64, purchased shares of Sprint Corporation before the two major cell phone companies announced a $26.5 billion merger in April 2018, officials said.

In addition to buying shares of Sprint under his own accounts, he also did so for an "account held jointly with his cousin, and an account in the name of a close, personal friend," according to prosecutors.

He engaged again in insider trading in 2019, when he bought shares of Navigant Consulting, Inc. before it was purchased by the consulting firm Guidehouse, officials said. He once again bought shares on behalf of others, including his family members and the same close friend he bought Sprint stock for. 

Buyer made more than $126,000 from his Sprint shares and $223,000 from his Navigant trades, prosecutors said. 

In addition to his nearly two-year prison sentence, Buyer was ordered to pay more than $350,000 in forfeiture and an amount of restitution that has yet to be determined.

"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," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. 

His sentence comes as members of Congress introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to ban government officials from trading stocks.

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