Citing family issues, a federal judge let the former head of Howard Stern's accounting firm off without any prison time, but ordered him to pay a $20,000 fine for hoarding stock.
Gary Herwitz, 50, was sentenced to two years probation and was ordered to complete a mental health treatment program by Brooklyn federal court Judge Nicholas Garaufis. The $20,000 is about equal to the estimated profit Herwitz made from his September 2004 grab of 25,000 shares of Sirius Satellite Radio stock -- shortly before Stern announced he would be making the move to the satellite station from Infinity Broadcasting in a $500 million deal.
Herwitz, who worked for accounting firm Mahoney Cohen CPA PC, admitted he had overheard about Stern's plans from a co-worker.
Herwitz had faced up to 16 months behind bars. He settled insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for just over $52,000 in December.
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