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(Adds further details on case)
By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A former director at BarclaysPlc was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in a U.S.prison for repeatedly passing tips about mergers under way atthe bank to a plumber, who made thousands of dollars tradingahead of the deals' announcements.
Steven McClatchey, 58, was also ordered by U.S. DistrictJudge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan to pay a $10,000 fineand jointly with the plumber forfeit $76,000 after pleadingguilty in July to conspiracy and securities fraud charges.
In court, McClatchey saying he had provided the insider tipsto ingratiate himself with the plumber, Gary Pusey, in hopes ofgetting a "simpler, less stressful" job outside of Wall Streetwith his 20-employee plumbing business in Long Island.
"I am sincerely sorry for what I have done, and I will feela strong sense of remorse for the rest of my life," McClatcheysaid.
The case stemmed from a probe that became an example of arecent effort by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tobuild insider trading cases by culling through billions of rowsof data it has collected to spot unusual tradingpatterns.
The SEC has said the probe began after a unit tasked withanalyzing that data "detected an illicit pattern of trading" byGary Pusey, a plumber in New York's Long Island, who tradedahead of a series of mergers involving Barclays as an adviser.
After federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation joined the probe, in December 2015, Pusey begancooperating with them, providing "detailed information" abouthis source, according to court papers.
That source was McClatchey, who according to his lawyers wasan avid recreational sailor who had befriended Pusey at a marinain Freeport, New York, where they both docked their boats,spending most Saturdays with him.
Prosecutors said from February 2014 to September 2015,McClatchey tipped Pusey about more than 10 deals involvingcompanies that included Entropic Communications Inc and CVSHealth Corp, enabling him to make about $76,000.
While McClatchey said he was hoping for a job with Pusey,prosecutors said the Barclays employee also received somefinancial benefits from Pusey, such as thousands of dollars incash and free bathroom renovation services.
Pusey, who pleaded guilty in May to securities fraud andother charges, has yet to be sentenced. No sentencing date hasbeen set.
The case is U.S. v. Pusey et al, U.S. District Court,Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-369. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by JonathanOatis and Diane Craft)
