NEW YORK, May 27: Lawyers representing Hafiz Zubair Naseem, a former investment banker of Credit Suisse, are pleading with a New York judge to give him minimal jail time, rather than eight to ten years as suggested by the probation office.

Hafiz Naseem is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday for his conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and 28 counts of insider trading.

The Pakistani banker is held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in lower Manhattan since February when he was convicted by the jury.

In a plea to Judge Robert P. Patterson, his lawyers asked him to “impose a fairer sentence than the extremely severe one suggested by the probation office.”

They maintained that a sentence of eight years or more “would be unduly harsh in a case where the defendant received no financial gain and where his prolonged absence would devastate a family”.

The crimes carry a penalty of at least 25 years in prison and deportation, though prosecutors told the judge after the verdict was read in February that based on federal sentencing guidelines they believe his sentence should be about 12 to 15 years.

Hafiz Naseem was charged last year when authorities said his tips to Ejaz Rahim, who was the head of investment banking at the Faysal Bank in Pakistan, enabled Rahim to make more than $7 million in profits.

Rahim has been charged with acting on inside information from Naseem, but he remains a fugitive in the case. US Attorney Michael Garcia expressed frustration at his office’s inability to arrest and prosecute Mr Rahim saying “we cannot force a sovereign nation to hand over one of its subjects”.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent testified that Naseem made 150 calls during 2006 and early 2007 to Rahim, some of which were followed by stock trades by the Pakistani banker, based on a review of trading records.

The prosecution said that Naseem was the only Credit Suisse employee at the New York office who placed calls to Rahim.

Rahim earned at least $60,000 on each illegal trade and as much as $5 million in one case, prosecutors said.

Hafiz Naseem came to the United States in 2002 to go to the business school at New York University, and then worked at JP Morgan Chase & Co before joining Credit Suisse in 2006. He is a native of Lahore and now lives in New York City’s suburbs.

He has a daughter who is suffering from cerebral palsy.