Federal prosecutors in 2014 accused ex-AMO CEO James Mazzo of tipping former Orioles and Angels player DeCinces about the pending merger. DeCinces allegedly passed that information on to former teammate Eddie Murray, who later agreed to settle his case for $358,000 but admitted no wrongdoing; DeCinces agreed in 2011 to pony up $2.5 million (but admitted no guilt) to settle similar charges leveled by the SEC and was found guilty of insider trading in May 2017.
Calling DeCinces “a good man who made a mistake,” Judge Andrew Guilford of the U.S. District Court for Central California sentenced DeCinces to one day in jail, for which he already has credit in time served, plus eight months of home detention, two years of probation and a $10,000 fine, according to news reports.
“I know what I did at that moment was wrong,” DeCinces told the judge during his sentencing hearing, according to the Baltimore Sun. “I beat myself up more times than you can imagine.”
“I’m very thankful for finally getting through this long ordeal,” he told the San Jose Mercury News after the hearing. “It’s been extremely difficult on myself and my family. I’m just blessed that it’s over, I now know what I have to face and move on.”
Late last year federal prosecutors dropped perjury and insider trading charges against Mazzo after two juries deadlocked over the case, leading Guilford to dismiss the charges with prejudice. Mazzo had agreed to pay $1.5 million but admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement in November 2018.
The judge in Mazzo’s first trial declared a mistrial after the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict. That jury also convicted DeCinces and a business associate on charges of tender offer fraud, despite deadlocking on other charges against DeCinces and all of the charges against Mazzo. The second trial also ended in deadlock in February 2018.
Mazzo is now global ophthalmology president at Carl Zeiss Meditec (ETR:AFX) after a three-year run as president and CEO at AcuFocus. Abbott sold the former AMO business to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) for $4.33 billion in 2017.
