Nacchio's attorney, Maureen Mahoney, argues that his sunny disposition amidst troubling financial predictions from company officials (and his own sale of millions of dollars of Qwest shares) were due to optimism that the company would win lucrative contracts with the National Security Agency. The appeals court agreed that classified documents related to those negotiations were improperly excluded.

The defense could benefit from a new jury sympathetic to their argument that Nacchio was a defender of civil liberties who raised questions concerning the legality of undisclosed NSA programs (which name I imagine starts with "warrantless" and ends with "wiretapping"). Smart move. God-fearing, patriotic defender of the Constitution generally plays better with John Q. Public than wealthy CEO blissfully unaware of impending corporate insolvency.

FULL COVERAGE:

• Meet your whitecollar crimelords, Joseph Nacchio
  
• Over the weekend: Nacchio tries to cheese it

(Photo by Reuters/Rick Wilking)

• Web calendar startup Kiko sold for over $250k, which blogger Om Malik says is a great deal for a company that only took $50k in "convertible debt" (an angel investment somewhere between a loan and buying a share of the company outright). [GigaOM]
• Steve Jobs came under options backdating suspicion again. Even if he's cleared for some tricky (but not very shady) stock option grants at Apple, he could get in trouble for another grant at Pixar. (Background: Apple is investigating possible cases where stock options were granted, then the gift date changed to make the options worth more. [Update: Backdating is fine, if you properly account for it — which may not have happened here.]) [SF Chronicle]
• Meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News interviewed a leading applied ethics professor about the stock backdating issue, which is now one of Silicon Valley's biggest industry-wide scandals. [Mercury News]
• Google finally promised to break into the B2B market, making every journalist and analyst stare at Google and Microsoft, shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" It's like seeing 50 Cent roll into The Game's favorite club — something's gotta go down. [NYT, no reg needed]
• Ex-Qwest chief and accused inside trader Joe Nacchio (pictured) will be tried at the company's home city of Denver, despite Nacchio's effort to move the trial elsewhere, since, well, everyone in Denver hates him. [CBS 4 with video]

Why, look, it's former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, accused of insider trading to the tune of $101 million. In the other corner, first assistant U.S. attorney Cliff Stricklin, last seen putting Ken Lay behind bars.

If our man wants to be Nacchio Libre, he'll have to fight 42 charges of insider trading. His current defense? "I had no idea the company was going under." Yeah, that seemed to work just fine for Lay.

Of course, the Secret Insider Knowledge that Nacchio say made him so confident...is classified. Matters of national security. Let's see if Nacchio can't eat just one charge with that defense.

Enron Prosecutor to Lead Case Against Qwest's Former CEO [WSJ]