Ex-Darienite Poteroba Sentenced to 22 Months for Insider Trading

Igor Poteroba — the former UBS investment banker and ex-Darien resident who pled guilty to insider trading last year — was sentenced to 22 months in prison Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty handed down the decision in Manhattan federal court, where Poteroba was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, fined $25,000, and ordered to forfeit $465,095 in proceeds from the offenses.

Poteroba, 37, pled to three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in December.

Bloomberg reported Monday that Poteroba's 22-month sentence would include the 12 months already spent in prison since his arrest. Prosecutors had sought up to 37 months of jailtime.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that the message of the sentence "should be crystal clear."

"This office, along with our law enforcement partners, will not abide corrupt insiders who use their privileged positions to steal their companies’ valuable secrets and cash in on them," Bharara said.

According to Bharara's office, Poteroba obtained insider information between 2006 and 2009 regarding six mergers and acqusitions between publicly traded health care companies, which he illegally passed over the phone to Chicago-based investment adviser Alexei Koval.

Koval and another trader would purchase securities in each company before a deal was made public and sell them shortly after the official announcement, prosecutors said. Poteroba is said to have received a portion of the profits from the transactions.

Koval, 37, pled guilty to related charges in January and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 24. Officials said the two men knew each other after having studied together at the University of New Haven.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Poteroba's  in August, according to records obtained from the Town Clerk. Phone listings place his current home address in New Canaan.