Attorney Sentenced for Insider Trading on Harleysville Merger

A lawyer with a law firm that represented Harleysville Group Inc. in its $760 million merger with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. in 2011 has been sentenced to six months in jail for trading on inside information related to the merger.

Herbert Sudfeld was sentenced in Philadelphia after a federal jury in February found him guilty on charges of securities fraud and making a false statement. He was also ordered to pay $77,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors said that Sudfeld engaged in insider trading while he was a partner at Fox Rothschild, which represented Harleysville. According to an indictment, Sudfeld learned his partners were representing Harleysville days before the merger was announced and bought stock. After the deal was announced Harleysville’s stock price jumped 85 percent. He then sold the shares, earning profits of $75,530, prosecutors said.