The Decade in the DBJ: Joe Nacchio
As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, the Denver Business Journal is revisiting some of the biggest business-news stories of the last 10 years.
Here, we look at Joseph Nacchio, the one-time hard-charging CEO of Qwest Communications International Inc. who is now serving a prison term following his 2007 conviction on 19 felony counts related to insider trading.
The story: Nacchio was an AT&T executive when Qwest — a telecom founded by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz — named him CEO in 1996. He was granted millions of shares of Qwest stock in 1997.
In 2000, under Nacchio’s leadership, Qwest acquire the baby Bell U S West and became of the nation’s largest phone companies.
In 2001, Nacchio began selling off his shares before a write-down pushed the stock price downward. In August 2001, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court, accusing Nacchio and others of issuing "false and misleading" statements about the company’s financial state that had kept the stock price artificially high. Later, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department launched probes.
In June 2002, after Qwest stock cratered, Nacchio resigned, and the company later was forced to restate three years’ worth of earnings.
Nacchio was indicted on 42 insider-trading counts in December 2005. His federal-court trial in March 2007 garnered worldwide attention.
Following his conviction and a string of unsuccessful appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nacchio reported to prison in Pennsylvania in April of this year.
Today: Nacchio remains behind bars while he awaits a resentencing on his original conviction, a date for which has not been set.
Click here for a roundup of DBJ coverage of this key story of the decade.