Chiesi receives 30 months in prison

Former hedge fund manager Danielle Chiesi was sentenced to 30 months in prison by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Chiesi, 45, who plead guilty in Galleon group insider trading, was sentenced to two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service by federal judge Richard Holwell in Manhattan Court.

Chiesi, a former Executive with the New Castle hedge fund firm, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in January. Specifically, she admitted to passing along inside information about IBM, AMD and Sun Microsystems to her boss at New Castle, Mark Kurland, and to the Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Rajaratnam was convicted of 14 counts of insider trading in May and faces at least 20 years in prison at his sentencing on Sept. 27.

Chiesi received notoriety during Rajnaratnams trial when prosecutors played tapes of her conversations with profanity laced Rajnaratnam.

Sentencing guidelines called for her to serve a 37-46 month prison sentence, while her lawyers argued for a 27-month prison sentence.

Chiesi held a press conference outside the courthouse after her punishment where her lawyer, Alan Kaufman, said his client will serve his sentence and move on with her life.

Chiesi up media when asked what she expected from his prison time.

"I believe in order to survive," said Chiesi in a surprisingly positive mood.

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New Castle Chiesi was Boss ' "virtual servant"

Danielle Chiesi, the hedge fund manager who pleaded guilty in Galleon insider trading investigation team, said his boss at New Castle partners transformed her into a "virtual servant".

In court papers, said Chiesis lawyers also Mark Kurland, her ex-Partner, head of New Castle and her former lover, exposed her to a "vicious cycle of abuse" and "psychological abuse".

Chiesi requests a Federal Court judge to her less than the federal sentencing guidelines, 37-46 months.

Prosecutors, however, to be known as Chiesi, "an elaborate Wall Street insider," in their newspapers asking the judge to adhere to the guidelines on her sentence.

"Chiesi is driven in large part on its own, and she was sufficiently experienced and sophisticated that she knew exactly what she did. In short, she was not only the Courland's minion, "prosecutors wrote.

Kurland pleaded guilty last year and is serving 27 months in prison.

At least, Chiesis lawyers argued, she gets less time than Courland.

After Courland was sentenced, prosecutors argued that it was he, not Chiesi, who decided how big a position New Castle should take in securities that are bought and sold based on inside information.

She raised eyebrows during the trial of Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam when heard on the tape says in the hedge fund manager who played she employed Akamai "as a finely tuned piano." Rajaratnam was sentenced last month by 14 points for insider trading.

Chiesi is scheduled to be sentenced on June 30.

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