AUSTRALIAN financial research analyst Trent Martin faces a five-year prison sentence in the US after pleading guilty to an insider trading scandal involving computing giant IBM’s confidential $US1.2 billion takeover of a Chicago software company.
Martin, 34, who grew up at Avalon on Sydney’s northern beaches, appeared before US District Court Judge Andrew Carter Jr in a Manhattan courtroom.
Martin was arrested just before Christmas in Hong Kong and his lawyer Larry Krantz said he spent an horrific three months in Hong Kong jails, including a period in a prison hospital for inmates with “severe psychiatric disorders”, before eventually being extradited to the US and freed on bail.
Martin, who was the key figure in the $US1 million-plus insider trading scandal but pocketed just $US7,900 for himself, had maintained his innocence until Thursday when he entered guilty pleas before Judge Carter Jr to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
“I knew that my actions were wrong and in violation of the law,” Martin told the judge.
Martin, whose bail conditions required him to live in Manhattan following his extradition from Hong Kong to New York in late March, will be allowed to return to Sydney until his March 14 sentencing or other required Manhattan court dates.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/companies/sydney-analyst-trent-martin-faces-five-years8217-jail-after-insider-training-guilty-plea/story-fnda1bsz-1226718531276#ixzz2eoF05y2B
• Earlier on Tasmanian Times, Frank Nicklason: Pull the other one
