Late on Friday, word came down that former Deloitte vice chairman Tom Flanagan was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his insider trading activities. People hate it when big shots use their status to trade on information the rest of us don't have access to, but gears grind into dust when people like Flanagan pull stunts like this. Why? Because he's one of those stewards of capital markets that is SUPPOSED to be above all this stuff. Unfortunately, ol' Tom couldn't resist the urge. Where these urges come from, however, is not immediately known:
Thomas Flanagan, a former vice chairman at Deloitte & Touche, said he didn't have a "great answer" to explain why he illegally traded in the stocks of the accounting firm's clients despite his professional and personal success. But the federal judge who sentenced him Friday to 21 months in prison had a possible reason. "The only explanation I can come up with is hubris," said U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. "You certainly didn't need the money." Flanagan's motives for his insider trading were widely discussed at his sentencing hearing because, as his attorney said, "The question everyone has is why did he do it?"
Okay, so the blowjob in the Oval Office excuse seems reasonable enough Be that as it may, things are quite a bit worse than just spending 21 months at Club Fed – Yankton, South Dakota. Flanagan paid a fine of $1.05 million to the SEC and the real twist of the knife is this:
He resigned from Deloitte in 2008 amid an investigation into his trading activities. As part of a legal settlement with the firm, Flanagan gave up about $14 million in pension and deferred compensation, according to court papers filed by his attorney.
His gains from insider trading were $430,000.
