Ex-UBS executive jailed for insider trading
A former executive director at Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has been jailed for his part in an illegal insider trading ring in the United States.
Mitchel Guttenberg pleaded guilty to charges he made millions of dollars by selling inside tips to investors in what prosecutors called one of the biggest Wall Street insider trading rings since the 1980s.
He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in a New York court on Monday after expressing remorse for the crime.
Guttenberg served on UBS’s Investment Review Committee, which approves analyst recommendations to upgrade or downgrade company shares. Prosecutors said investors were tipped off about UBS stock recommendations and pending deals involving Morgan Stanley clients.
Judge Deborah Betts said: “From the moment he joined the [UBS] investment review committee he planned to give that information to others to use illegally.”
He was among 13 people charged last year for involvement in the insider trading ring.
In a previous statement UBS has said the US Attorney described the bank as a “victim of this alleged scheme”.
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