Former investor relations executive Michael Lucarelli, who stole the limelight last year when he was filmed running from photographers seeking comment on his arrest for insider trading, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Lucarelli was also ordered to pay more than $958,000 he earned in insider trading between August 2013 and August 2014 while he served as director of market intelligence at investor relations firm Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates (LHA).
He received widespread media coverage last August and was mocked on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart when he left the courtroom and, startled by the presence of a CNBC cameraman and several photographers, took off running while on camera. He left his leather flip-flops behind as he dashed down several blocks of New York.
Lucarelli was convicted of insider trading for accessing draft press releases his firm was preparing for clients and either buying or shorting clients’ stock before the announcements. In court, according to the Associated Press, Lucarelli said he carried out the illegal trading because he felt he was being cheated by his employer.
‘They were stealing from me and I got desperate,’ Lucarelli said, according to the news agency. He also said he became dependent on drugs he needed to cope with Crohn’s disease and his 14-hour workdays. A US district judge said it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to imprison Lucarelli, adding that the probation department had noted ‘he blames everybody but himself’.
Lucarelli told the judge that he lost all his money, his friends and his marriage after his arrest and said he was studying to become a truck driver so he could still find work after his conviction. The judge agreed to postpone his prison sentence for 10 weeks so he could attend the training.
