Journalist's Insider Trading Conviction Thrown Out

Germany's Federal Court of Justice on Thursday overturned a lower court's conviction of a jounalist accused of insider trading. The prosecution of Sascha O., a prominent television business commentator and editor in chief of a business magazine, was the first of its kind in Germany. A Stuttgart regional court previously ruled that the journalist had committed insider trading in Oct. 2000, when he purchased stocks on Germany's high-tech Neuer Markt index that later rose after he recommended the purchase of two funds that contained the stock. The court said he then sold the stocks, turning a €115,000 profit. After his conviction, the court sentenced Sascha O. to one year in prison. However, the Karlsruhe federal court said that because it could not be proven the journalist used information from a third party, the insider trading prosecution had to be overturned.