CRIME DOES NOT PAY FOR QWEST'S NACCHIO

Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio was convicted yesterday on 19 insider trading counts of the 42 with which he had initially been prosecuted. Each charge carries with it a maximum of 10 years in prison and $1 million fine.

From BusinessWeek:

In the latest in a series of convictions against corporate executives, one-time CEO Joe Nacchio was found guilty of illegally selling $52 million in stock amid an accounting scandal that nearly sank Qwest Communications.

Nacchio left the federal courthouse with his wife and son Michael after Thursday's verdict, declining to comment yet determined to appeal the 19 insider trading convictions, each of which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Nacchio is one of a handful of former Qwest executives who have been convicted of criminal charges stemming from a multibillion-dollar scandal that forced the Denver-based telecommunications company to restate $2.2 billion of revenue.

He also is the latest to be convicted as part of the government's push to punish white-collar executives stemming from accounting fraud at companies from Enron to WorldCom.

"'Convicted felon Joe Nacchio' has a very nice ring to it," boasted Troy Eid, the U.S. attorney for Colorado.

The Justice Department has gone after a number of corporate executives in cases involving accounting and fraud scandals in the late 1990s and 2000 that sparked outrage among investors.

Former Cendant Corp. Chairman Walter Forbes is serving more than 12 years in prison and has been ordered to pay $3.28 billion in restitution. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other charges in a massive fraud scheme that cost the travel and real estate company and its investors more than $3 billion.

Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers is serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in the fraud that drove that Clinton, Miss.-based company into bankruptcy in 2002.

Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling is serving 24 years and four months in prison for fraud and other crimes in the collapse of the former energy giant. Enron founder Ken Lay also was convicted, but a judge vacated that decision when Lay died of a heart attack last year.

HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy was acquitted of all charges in a $2.7 billion fraud during his tenure at HealthSouth.

SIRIUS & XM SATELLITE RADIO CONSIDERING MERGER?

According to The Wall Street Journal, rivals Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. seem to be considering a merger, but any combination of the only satellite radio providers would face serious legal and regulatory antitrust hurdles from the Justice Department Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. According to Reuters, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today said, "There's a prohibition on one entity owning both of those licenses," making a merger seem unlikely, but he did leave the door open by saying that the FCC would review any transaction submitted to it.

While Sirius and XM are the only satellite radio providers in the United States, they might be able to get over most antitrust and competition hurdles by arguing that satellite radio competes with traditional terrestrial radio, MP3s, Internet radio, and even cellphones.

While both Sirius and XM have added millions of users, totalling more than 12 million, neither has approached profitability. In the past 12 months, Sirius stock price has fallen more than 35% while XM has dropped more than 40%.