(Corrects paragraphs 12-13 to remove incorrect name ofdefendant's wife, who was not identified in court papers) By Jonathan Stempel and Brendan Pierson NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - A research scientist atMassachusetts Institute of Technology was sentenced on Friday to15 months in prison after admitting to insider trading on amining company merger that his wife, a corporate lawyer, hadbeen working on. Fei Yan, 31, a native of Nanjing, China and postdoctoralassociate at MIT, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge KatherineForrest in Manhattan. He was also ordered to forfeit $119,429 ofproceeds from suspicious trading. Yan's guilty plea stemmed from his purchase of stock optionsof Stillwater Mining Co in the three weeks before South Africa'sSibanye Gold Ltd on Dec. 9, 2016, announced a $2.2billion takeover of the Colorado-based company. Prosecutors said Yan used a brokerage account set up in hismother's name before making his illegal trades. They said he made some trades after conducting internetsearches for "how sec detect unusual trade" and "insider tradingwith international account," and viewing articles titled "U.S.Insider Trading Enforcement Goes Global" and "Want to CommitInsider Trading? Here's How Not to Do It." U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan said Yan shouldhave not done it. "Fei Yan blatantly circumvented the securities laws that arein place to deter people from doing exactly what he did," Bermansaid in a statement.
Lawyers for Yan had sought a sentence of time served, whichprobation officers had recommended, plus community service. "No one gains by Mr. Yan serving a jail sentence," hislawyer, Seth Orkand, said in an email. "Mr. Yan took fullresponsibility for his actions, and the sentence imposed is aregrettable ending to a regrettable incident." Prosecutors said the forfeiture included about $10,000 fromtrades in Mattress Firm Inc that Yan made after learning thatSouth Africa's Steinhoff International Holdings NV planned to buy the chain, in a merger his wife also worked on. Yan did not plead guilty over those trades, but they wereconsidered "related relevant conduct" under his plea agreement.He was arrested in Massachusetts last July. Yan's wife, who was not identified in court papers, hadworked at the law firm Linklaters at the time of the trades. Shehas not been criminally charged. The London-based firm said in July that Yan's wife no longerworked there, and that it was cooperating with prosecutors. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson and Jonathan Stempel in New York;editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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