Jury finds ex-congressman guilty of using inside information to profit from T-Mobile-Sprint merger

Former Republican Congressman Stephen Buyer was convicted by a New York jury yesterday of insider trading and profiting illegally from T-Mobile's $26 billion purchase of Sprint. The deal closed in April 2020 and has helped shape the current 5G environment in the U.S. That's because the deal gave T-Mobile control over Sprint's mid-band 2.5GHz spectrum and, Buyer was a member of the House of Representatives representing a district in Indiana between 1993 and 2011.

He also was accused of profiting by over $200,000 from advance knowledge of the 2019 acquisition of Navigant Consulting Inc. by Guidehouse. Buyer was convicted on four counts of security fraud and a sentencing hearing will be held by Judge Richard Berman on July 11th. T-Mobile and Sprint announced the merger on April 18th, 2018 after years of talk about such a deal. Butwasn't interested in Sprint's failing wireless operations. What it was looking to buy was Sprint's holdings of 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum. When it comes to 5G, mid-band airwaves are important since they travel farther than high-band mmWave spectrum, and they deliver download data speeds faster than low-band spectrum .

Buyer's attorneys said that there was no evidence that the former congressman's stock purchases were based on non-public information and claimed that the stock purchases were based on publicly available research. On the other hand, prosecutors said that Buyer's purchases were made near the time that employees at companies that were clients of his consulting firm learned about the deals. Sprint's shares nearly doubled from $4.37 at the end of January 2020 to $8.

On the last trading day before the deal was announced, Sprint was trading at $6.50. And the terms of the deal called for stockholders to receive $6.62 a share indicating that others beside Buyer might have been privy to non-public info about the transaction.Get the most important news, reviews and deals in mobile tech delivered straight to your inbox

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Former congressman is convicted of insider trading before T-Mobile merger with SprintFormer U.S. Congressman Stephen Buyer has been convicted by a New York jury of trading on inside information he learned in 2018 as a consultant to T-Mobile US Inc. ahead of its $23 billion merger with Sprint. Your tweet has been Juste-ified! Ex-Congressman Stephen Buyer has been found guilty by a New York jury of insider trading. The information he used was obtained in 2018 when he was a consultant for T-Mobile US Inc. just before it merged with Sprint for $23 billion. He’s a REPUBLICAN
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »