Former Nuveen trader behind $47M insider scheme seeks leniency
A former Nuveen trader asked a federal judge not to impose a harsh sentence on him for front-running the firm’s trades as part of a scheme that generated more than $47 million in illegal profits.
Lawrence Billimek, who will be sentenced on May 20, faces as many as seven years in prison under federal guidelines. In a recommendation filed on Monday, Billimek’s lawyers didn’t suggest a specific term but simply asked US District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan for the “most lenient sentence,” arguing the ex-trader had suffered enough by losing his career and reputation.
Federal prosecutors will file their own recommendation before Billimek’s sentencing and are likely to ask for more than six years in prison.
Billimek, 53, pleaded guilty in November to passing tips about planned Nuveen stock purchases over a six-year period to retiree Alan Williams, who would then acquire the shares ahead of the asset management giant. Williams pleaded guilty two months before Billimek and is scheduled to be sentenced this fall.
Financial Insecurity
The case was one of the first in which the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Consolidated Audit Trail — a controversial database tracking almost all US market activity — was credited with catching insider traders. In Monday’s filing, Billimek’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said the use of the CAT helped ensure that the case was well-publicized within the financial industry, so a stiff sentence wasn’t necessary to deter others.
“The news about this case and this new powerful tool being deployed by the SEC in itself provides an extra level of general deterrence,” Mukasey wrote. Billimek was fired from Nuveen shortly after his arrest in December 2022.
Mukasey said his client acknowledges that his crime
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