Former executive sent to prison for BlackBerry leak

folarin okunola

September 16, 2015 1:39 PM

The sentence was confirmed by the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston and it comes in the first case out of the many it is conducting investigations on

BlackBerry has been rumoured to be working on an Android device after sales of its recent device have been disappointing.

A former retail executive in the US has been sentenced to five months in prison for leaking confidential industry information to an analyst whose subsequent 2013 report on sales of BlackBerry’s newest smartphone sent the company’s stock price down.

James Dunham, former chief operating officer of Wireless Zone, which operates over 400 franchise Verizon Wireless outlets, was also ordered by US District Judge Douglas Woodlock in Boston, to serve five months of home confinement following his prison term and to pay $76,000 after pleading guilty to wire fraud in June.

READ: See GIF and Video showing BlackBerry's upcoming Android smartphone

The sentence was confirmed by the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston and it comes in the first case out of the many it is conducting investigations on for black market information on secret corporate information outside of insider trading.

According to the prosecutors and court paper, Dunham entered a secret consulting relationship with an analyst at Boston-based financial firm Detwiler Fenton in 2010 to provide corporate information in exchange for $2,000 per month.

In July, Brian Bennett, an employee at proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc pleaded guilty to divulging confidential corporate voting details to a proxy solicitation firm.

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folarin okunola