Steinberg Gets Three-And-Half Years For Insider Trading

Michael Steinberg, the highest-ranking SAC Capital Advisors employee to be convicted of insider-trading, has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Steinberg was convicted in December of trading shares of technology companies based on confidential information he received from his analyst, Jon Horvath. The portfolio manager argued that he was at the end of a long chain of insider-traders and did not know that the sources of the information were receiving a benefit for revealing it.

U.S. District Judge Sullivan called Steinberg a "good man" and told him that his crimes don't define him. But he rejected the hedge fund manager's request to receive no more than two years, noting that his trades took place "over months and years."

Still, Steinberg can count himself somewhat lucky: Sullivan is known as a harsh sentencer, and prosecutors had asked for up to six-and-a-half years in prison. The court's probation department had recommended between four-and-a-quarter years and five-and-a-quarter years.

Sullivan also imposed a $2 million fine on Steinberg, who will be permitted to remain free pending appeal.