Qwest’s Nacchio Out of Prison and Unrepentant

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[Photo: Denver Post]

Joe Nacchio is out of prison after serving four and a half years for insider trading. Nacchio is the former CEO of the Denver telecom company Qwest, now part of CenturyLink. He was found guilty of selling of his own stock while misleading the public about Qwest’s finances. That cost employees, retirees and shareholders an estimated 12 billion dollars.

Nacchio still denies he did anything wrong. And these days, he’s feeling vindicated after leaks by Edward Snowden about government surveillance. Nacchio says the government asked Qwest to participate in a secret spying program in the early 2000's, and when the company refused, the government retaliated against Nacchio and Qwest. To explain, and tell us about Nacchio’s experience in prison, Ryan Warner talks with Dionne Searcey of the Wall Street Journal. She landed the first interview with Nacchio after his release.