Mar 28, 2007 7:39 am US/Mountain
Ex-Finance Chief Returns To Stand In Nacchio Trial
Former Qwest CEO Charged With 42 Counts Of Insider Trading
DENVER (AP) ―
Jurors heard details for the first time about secret government contracts that could've given former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio hope for the phone company's future during his insider trading trial on Tuesday.
Former finance chief Robin Szeliga testified she asked Nacchio in 2001 why Qwest was buying assets abroad.
She said Nacchio told her he could not explain because the information was classified but that he had access to it through his membership on a government telecommunications panel.
Szeliga said she could not recall whether her conversation with Nacchio was before or after Qwest lowered its financial targets in September 2001.
Szeliga, Nacchio and other former executives are accused of orchestrating a financial fraud at the Denver-based phone company.
Qwest Communications International Incorporated was later forced to restate billions of dollars in revenue as a result of the accounting scandal.
Szeliga testified Monday that she argued with Nacchio for several hours one night, trying to convince the company's chief executive to reduce a 2001 public revenue forecast over concerns it was unattainable.
Nacchio has pleaded not guilty.
Szeliga also acknowledged that she's agreed to pay $577,000 in fines, restitution and other penalties without denying or admitting guilt.
She also is banned for life from being an officer or director of a public company.
She made the disclosures while testifying in Nacchio's $101 million insider trading trial. She said the agreement has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nacchio, 57, faces 42 counts of insider trading stemming from $101 million in stock sales during the first 5 months of 2001.
Qwest is the primary local phone company in 14 Midwestern and Western states.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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