(Image source from: Indian-origin fund manager gets 9 years in jail in US)

An Indian-origin portfolio manager in US has got a sentence to serve 9 years in jail. Besides he was ordered to forfeit a USD 9.3 million bonus earned through the insider trading schemes. He was charged for his role in the "most lucrative" insider trading schemes involving USD 276 million.

Mathew Martoma, 40 years, was sentenced by US District Judge Paul Gardephe at a federal court in New York on Monday. Judge Gardephe ordered Martoma to forfeit his interests in his Florida home and several bank accounts, while describing his conduct as "deeply corrosive to our financial markets," creating cynicism among investors.

Martoma's sentence is one of the longest handed down for insider trading and is in line with what was sought by Manhattan's top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara before the hearing.

Bharara had termed Martoma's role in the insider trading scheme as "central" and asked for a prison term of more than eight years along with forfeiture of his bonus. The India-born federal attorney sais that the sentence should be "commensurate" with the serious nature of the offense and the highly lucrative illegal profit it generated.

Martoma worked in the capacity of a portfolio manager at CR Intrinsic Investors, which is a division of hedge fund giant SAC Capital. Earlier in February this year, Martoma was convicted for gathering confidential information related to a top secret Alzheimer's drug trial from two doctors. He made huge profits and avoided losses amounting to 275 million dollars for SAC Capital.

(AW: Pratima Tigga)