Robert Moffat, the former International Business Machines Corp. senior vice president who pleaded guilty to leaking tips in the Galleon Group LLC case, was granted his wish to begin serving his term earlier so he we will be out of prison by his son’s college graduation in May.
Moffat, who was sentenced to six months in prison for his role in the insider-trading scheme, persuaded a federal judge in New York to let him begin his sentence eight months sooner than scheduled. He’s giving up his freedom before the Thanksgiving and Christmas season to be home before his son graduates.
“Mr. Moffat has discussed this matter with his family and they collectively feel that the pendency of a prison sentence creates substantially more stress than the benefit of spending the holidays together,” his lawyer, Kerry Lawrence, wrote in a Sept. 14 letter to U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts in Manhattan. Her approval was noted in the court docket yesterday.