A former Microsoft employee has been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of insider trading through which he and his partner managed to snag more than $400,000. Last month, the other partner was sentenced to a one and a half year prison term.
Jorgenson has pleaded guilty for passing on the confidential information to Stokke, who then used the intel to trade, and made a lot of profits. Jorgenson had provided private information he gathered from his job as a corporate finance manager at Microsoft to his partner who traded stocks and options.
Brian’s partner Sean Stokke was ordered a year and half prison time. The two had been jointly charged last year. Jorgenson lost his job at Microsoft after the company learned of the scheme.
Back in 2012, Jorgenson was privy that Microsoft was planning a multi-million dollar investment in the digital business of Barnes & Noble Inc. He shared this information with Stokke, who then bought options on Barnes & Noble in anticipation of the price rise.
When few days later Microsoft did invest in Barnes & Noble, the stock value of the bookseller rose by about 50 percent. As a result, Stokke made a profit of more than $184,000. Later Stokke shared the profits with Jorgenson via envelopes carrying $10,000 in cash, according to the charges.
However, their special arrangement didn’t stop there. The partners then bet twice in the following 18 months, when they bought Microsoft stock or an exchange-traded fund just before the earnings. The pair made a total profit of $414,000 from the combined trades.
Jorgenson’s lawyer asked for one year and a day imprisonment along with 500 hours of community service. However, US District Judge sentenced the accused to 2 years, saying that “It is important that you serve as a public example.”
