The SEC’s civil fraud case against former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio will most likely not go to trial until 2009. The SEC asserts that Nacchio and other former Qwest officials falsely inflated revenue by $3 billion from 1999 to 2002. U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer gave the parties until Oct. 15, 2008, to submit information on proposed expert witnesses. The judge said he does not expect to allow depositions of the securities expert witnesses. As reported in the Denver Post, the SEC plans to file a motion for summary judgment against Nacchio in August, asking that Nacchio be found guilty of all or part of the charges.
Nacchio, already convicted of illegal insider trading for stock sales from April to May 2001, is scheduled to be sentenced July 27 on his criminal conviction on 19 counts of illegal insider trading.