A former stock broker pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges stemming from a conspiracy to engage in insider trading ahead of a 2009 acquisition by IBM Corp. David Weishaus, 33, told a federal judge in Manhattan that he had traded on a tip a friend got from his roommate that IBM had agreed to buy Chicago-based software company SPSS Inc before the $1.2 billion deal was publicly announced. "I know my conduct was wrong, and I apologize to the court and my family, especially my mother and father," Weishaus said. The plea came amid a crackdown on insider trading by New York federal prosecutors, who since October 2009 have secured convictions of 78 people. On Wednesday a jury convicted Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors accused of insider trading. Weishaus, whose case is unrelated to Steinberg's, was first indicted in November 2012 and faced a Jan. 21 trial date. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and
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