Stewart stock scandal boss jailed
He also was ordered to pay over $4 million in fines and back taxes.
US District Judge William H Pauley rejected Waksal's plea for a lighter sentence based on ImClone's cancer research, Waksal's humanitarian works and the intense media interest surrounding the case.
"The harm that you wrought is truly incalculable," the judge said.
Earlier, with his voice breaking, Waksal, 55, apologised to his family and former employees just before he was sentenced.
"I am deeply disturbed and so very sorry for my actions," he said. "I want to apologise to all the people who may have had confidence in me and whose confidence I betrayed."
Waksal, who once rubbed shoulders with rock stars and cut a flamboyant figure in the mostly staid pharmaceutical industry, pleaded guilty in October to six counts, including securities fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.
The charges cover insider trading and the evasion of $1.2m in sales taxes on fine art.
Assistant US Attorney Michael Schachter asked for more than seven years, saying Waksal "told numerous, separate and distinct sets of lies" surrounding his family's sale of ImClone stock.
Waksal admitted to a scheme in which he tipped his daughter, Aliza, to dump ImClone stock just before it plunged in value on news that the Food and Drug Administration would not review his company's experimental cancer drug, Erbitux.
Ms Stewart, a close friend of Waksal, was indicted last week on five federal counts including obstruction of justice, conspiracy and lying to investigators tied to her December 2001 sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone stock. She pleaded innocent.
Her former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also was indicted and pleaded innocent. Prosecutors said Mr Bacanovic illegally sent word to Ms Stewart that Waksal's family was planning to unload shares of ImClone.
In a packed courtroom and with dozens of cameras ringed around the Manhattan courthouse, Waksal lawyer Mark Pomerantz tried to distance his client from the scandals that had shaken confidence in corporate America.
"He has been worried that he's going to be held responsible for companies and situations that he had nothing to do with," Mr Pomerantz said.
But Mr Schachter said Waksal had violated "a sacred trust with his shareholders" and blamed him for doing national harm with a crime made worse by his position as chief executive officer.
"It runs the risk of sending the message to investors that the game is rigged," he said.
A week ago, ImClone stock surged after European researchers reported that Erbitux does appear to be effective, helping some of the sickest colon cancer patients live longer.
Waksal told the judge, "To cancer patients I am so sorry for any delay I might have effected in the approval of Erbitux because of my actions."
Mr Pomerantz portrayed Waksal as fiercely devoted to ImClone and said he covered up the insider trading because he did not want to have to leave the company. The lawyer said the insider trading "took place literally on the spur of the moment".
"This was not a sophisticated, highly planned course of conduct that extends over time," he said.
Waksal, in a letter to the court, said: "I tore my family apart. That punishment is with me every moment of the day. I dream about it."
The charges against Waksal were not all directly related to insider trading.
In pleading guilty to bank fraud, Waksal said he forged a lawyer's signature on paperwork for a $44m bank loan.
Waksal also admitted he ordered staff to keep certain financial records from leaving his office, knowing the Securities and Exchange Commission would be interested in them.
In March, Waksal agreed to an $800,000 fine and a lifetime ban on leading a public company in a partial settlement of civil charges relating to the scandal filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
