James J. McDermott Jr. was the former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and chairman of

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., ''a Stifel Company'', is an investment banking firm headquartered in New York City, specializing exclusively in the financial services sector. KBW's primary business lines include research, corporate finance, equi ...

. He was arrested and charged with

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

in December 1999 by federal authorities. McDermott had revealed details about an upcoming merger in 1997 to his lover, Kathryn Gannon. He had been living in

Briarcliff Manor, New York Briarcliff Manor () is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, north of New York City. It is on of land on the east bank of the Hudson River, geographically shared by the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining. Briarcliff Manor inc ...

with his wife and children. McDermott's lawyers blamed his lapse in judgment on alcohol, depression and family problems. U.S. District Judge

Kimba Wood Kimba Maureen Wood (born January 21, 1944) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Wood has presided over many high-profile cases involving such figures as "Junk Bond Kin ...

reduced his sentence from 24 months to just 8 months. Although an appeals court overturned McDermott's conviction in 2001, saying his mistress had been unfairly portrayed as a prostitute, McDermott decided against a new trial and instead pleaded guilty to one charge of insider trading. In the end, he lost $25,000 in fines and five months of freedom. He was also barred from working in investment management. McDermott's family sued him in 2009 on grounds that he had allegedly taken the family trust while his mother was in a nursing home.Lawsuit against McDermott by family
nydailynews.com; accessed September 14, 2014.

References

External links

Profile
nydailynews.com; accessed July 11, 2017.
Inside trade by porn star?
December 21, 1999

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, James American financial businesspeople American white-collar criminals Living people People from Briarcliff Manor, New York Year of birth missing (living people)