[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday ordered [PDF text] that former Qwest Communications [corporate website] CEO Joseph Nacchio [JURIST news archive] should be retried before a new federal judge. Nacchio had appealed his April 2007 insider trading conviction [JURIST report] for selling $52 million of Qwest stock in 2001. The court found that US District Judge Edward Nottingham improperly excluded testimony from defense witness Daniel Fischel [academic profile], a corporate law and markets expert who would have explained public disclosure requirements on Nacchio's stock sales.

Federal prosecutors indicted Nacchio in December 2005 on 42 counts of insider trading [JURIST report]. He and other former Qwest executives still face civil fraud charges [JURIST reports] brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on allegations that Qwest improperly reported approximately $3 billion in revenue that eased its 2000 merger with US West. AP has more.