Level Global co-founder gets 6-1/2 years prison insider trading

Hedge Fund Level Global Investors LP co-founder Anthony Chiasson was sentenced on Monday to 6-1/2 years in prison for insider trading.

At a court hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan also ordered Chiasson, 39, to pay a $5 million fine.

Chiasson and Todd Newman, a former hedge fund portfolio manager with the now-defunct hedge fund Diamondback Capital Management, were convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and of securities fraud in December.

Sullivan sentenced Newman to 4-1/2 years in prison earlier this month. Federal prosecutors had requested that Chiasson serve as many as 10 years in prison.

The two were accused of using inside information to trade in shares of computer maker Dell Inc and chipmaker Nvidia Corp . Level Global made $68 million in illegal profits from the trades, according to prosecutors.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)