2 set for sentencing in insider trading case

NEWARK, New Jersey – A former attorney who provided information in a 17-year long insider trading scheme that took in more than $30 million was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.

At his sentencing in Newark, a federal judge called Matthew Kluger's actions "amoral" and "thuggish."

The Oakton, Virginia, resident was arrested last year, along with former stock trader Garrett Bauer of New York and a third man, in what the U.S. Attorney's Office characterized as a scheme out of the 1987 movie "Wall Street," which coined the phrase "greed is good."

Bauer was scheduled to be sentence later Monday.

Prosecutors said Kluger would pass advance information on company mergers to a middleman, who gave it to Bauer. It's estimated they made $11 million alone on tech company Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Defense Attorney Alan Zegas argued for a shorter sentence and said that Bauer realized the lion's share of the profits while Kluger took only a small fraction of the total and was not aware of many trades that Bauer made without telling him.

U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden rejected Zegas' argument, and said that every one of more than 30 insider trades made by Bauer was based on privileged information provided by Kluger.

Zegas said he would appeal the sentence.

Kluger, who said in remarks to the court that he was "deeply, deeply sorry," insisted afterward that the sentence was too harsh.

"I was happy it was over the day they arrested me," Kluger said. "That's why I cooperated and told them everything I knew. I was willing to take responsibility for everything I did from the beginning."