The judge also imposed a $2000,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.

A Brooklyn, Massachusetts man, who was arrested and charged with $1.1 million insider trading scheme in April 2015, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison on Wednesday.

Indian American Amit Kanodia, 49, was sentenced in Boston by Federal Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton for the insider trading scheme involving the failed Apollo Tyres bid to takeover Cooper Tire. The judge also imposed a $2000,000 fine and 100 hours of community service and ordered the forfeiture of the $242,500 illegal profit he made.

The real estate entrepreneur was found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy by a jury after a six-day trial in last October, but he was sentenced only now.

According to the office of the federal prosecutor for Massachusetts, Kanodia heard about Apollo Tyres’ plan to acquire the US-based Cooper Tire from his ex-wife, who was a lawyer for the company in 2013.

He tipped off two of his friends, Iftikar Ahmed and Steven Watson, about the proposed acquisition and they bought shares and options of Cooper Tires, which trades on the New York Stock exchange, IANS quoted the prosecutors.

According to the officials, when the takeover plan was unveiled in June 2013, the share prices shot up by 41 per cent giving Ahmed and Watson a profit of more than $1 million and they gave Kanodia a share of it.

Ahmed, an IIT Delhi and Harvard Business School graduate, fled to India when he was charged with insider trading and is believed to be still in India. Authorities consider the Connecticut fund manager as a fugitive from justice. He has also been charged with embezzling $54 million from the investment company Oak Investment Partners, where he was a general partner.

Watson turned approver as he admitted his guilt and testified against Kanodia. He had to give up almost $170,000 in illegal trading profits and was fined $25,000 for insider trading. He had also given two years of probation in November last year.