A former Stryker (NYSE:SYK) marketing executive escaped a jail sentence yesterday, instead drawing 6 months of home confinement and 2 years of probation for passing along inside information ahead of Stryker’s 2011 acquisition of Orthovita.
Last week a pair of traders were sentenced to jail for their parts in the scheme, after admitting to illegal stock trades based on tips relayed from Mark Foldy, a former marketing executive at Stryker.
Lawrence Grum was sentenced to a year and a day and another trader, Michael Castelli, drew 9 months in jail at a sentencing hearing before Judge Katharine Hayden of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey.
The duo allegedly acted on tips from Foldy about the impending, $316 million deal for Orthovita in May 2011, according to prosecutors, who alleged that the scheme generated $1.7 million in illegal profits and kickbacks.
Foldy allegedly plotted with Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) accounting & reporting director Mark Cupo and Celgene (NSDQ:CELG) financial reporting director John Lazorchak, illegally leaking confidential information about their companies to Grum and Castelli, high school friends who conducted the trades.
Cupo was sentenced yesterday to 16 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Lazorchak is still awaiting sentencing.