Ex-Barclays banker sentenced in US prison for insider trading scheme

A former director at Barclays was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in a U.S. prison for repeatedly passing tips about mergers under way at the bank to a plumber, who made thousands of dollars trading ahead of the deals' announcements.

Steven McClatchey, 58-year-old former banker, in July admitted to leaking confidential information to plumber Gary Pusey, who allegedly made about $76,000 trading ahead of deals involving PetSmart Inc., Omnicare Inc. and others.

In court, McClatchey saying he had provided the insider tips to ingratiate himself with the plumber, Gary Pusey, in hopes of getting a "simpler, less stressful" job outside of Wall Street with his 20-employee plumbing business in Long Island.

"I am sincerely sorry for what I have done, and I will feel a strong sense of remorse for the rest of my life," McClatchey said.

The case stemmed from a probe that became an example of a recent effort by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to build insider trading cases by culling through billions of rows of data it has collected to spot unusual trading patterns.

The SEC has said the probe began after a unit tasked with analyzing that data "detected an illicit pattern of trading" by Gary Pusey, a plumber in New York's Long Island, who traded ahead of a series of mergers involving Barclays as an adviser.

While McClatchey said he was hoping for a job with Pusey, prosecutors said the Barclays employee also received some financial benefits from Pusey, such as thousands of dollars in cash and free bathroom renovation services.
Pusey has pleaded guilty to criminal charges and awaits sentencing.