The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said on Friday that the trial court sentence of 'six years in prison and a $52 million penalty' handed to Joseph Nacchio - ex- CEO of Qwest Communications International Inc - for insider trading may be reduced.

As per the appeals court opinion, Nacchio was 'improperly sentenced' by the trial court in 2007, due to an error in calculations pertaining to his illegal stock market profits. The court said that Nacchio, who turned 60 in June, was erroneously ordered to pay $52 million - his gross earnings from illegal stock sales - in penalty.

However, the appellate court did not say what Nacchio's sentence and forfeiture should be, leaving it to be determined by a lower federal court.

The appeals court's Friday ruling was based on inside information - while the trial court had based its sentence on a $28 million gain figure, Nacchio's attorneys had argued that his gain on the trades was $1.8 million; and have, thus, asked for no more than a four-years-and-three-months' jail term for Nacchio.

Going by the accusations, Nacchio, a famous CEO during the technology boom, had illegally sold his Qwest stock in 2001, after he was informed by the company executives that Qwest could not meet its financial targets. His conviction, on 19 counts of insider trading, was extolled as a victory over covetous corporate heads!