A former Netflix engineer and his pal have been sentenced to prison over an insider trading conspiracy in which they used secret information about the company's subscriber numbers to profit off of stock trades.
Sung Mo Jun, 49, of Bellevue, Washington, was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday for masterminding the complex and long-running scheme that continued even after he left the company.
His buddy Junwoo Chon, 50, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for his role, after prosecutors said he coordinated with Jun to execute trades and paid the Netflix engineer kickbacks.
At the sentencing hearings U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones slammed the already wealthy Jun for hatching the brazen plot, saying, 'You had no reason to pursue this additional wealth, and yet you chose to engage your brother and best friend in this scheme. There is just one reason: greed.'
Sung Mo Jun, 49, of Bellevue, Washington, was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday for masterminding the complex and long-running insider trading scheme
Jun told the court: 'What I did was foolish, wrong, illegal…. I have no excuse. I disappointed many people.'
Insider trading, which is often difficult to prosecute, refers to buying or selling stock based on material, non-public information about a company in order to reap a windfall or avoid a loss.
'Insider trading is a serious offense,' said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown in a statement.
'Such conduct damages our financial markets and erodes public trust because the investing public needs to have faith that the markets provide an even playing field to all participants,' he added.
'Mr. Jun and Mr. Chon were both financially secure with good jobs and good salaries when greed drove them to break the law to increase their own wealth, at the expense of others. Such conduct, will not be
