EX-IBM executive Robert Moffat has been jailed for six months for his part in the Galleon hedge fund insider trading case, which prosecutors call the biggest of its kind in history.
The former senior vice president and group executive in charge of systems and technology was also fined $50,000 having pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to commit insider trading crimes.
Between August and October 2008 Moffat provided inside information on IBM, Lenovo - where he was a non-voting member of the board - and AMD to Danielle Chiesi, with whom he was having an affair.
Chiesi, a trader at New Castle Partners, an equity hedge fund unit of Bear Stearns Asset Management, used the non-public information to make securities transactions.
Chiesi is set to stand trial with Raj Rajaratnam - founder of the Galleon Group at the centre of the probe - and several others later this year in relation to the scam which is thought to have netted around $50 million.
Preet Bharara, Manhattan US Attorney, says: "As a senior executive at IBM, Robert Moffat was entrusted with secret and valuable information. As today's sentence reflects, illegally betraying that trust is a serious crime, and even high-flying executives do not receive get-out-of-jail-free cards for participation in insider trading."