NEW YORK, May 31: Hafiz Mohammed Zubair Naseem, the former Credit Suisse investment banker convicted of insider trading, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday despite pleas by defence attorney for leniency taking into consideration Naseem’s ailing mother and daughter.

“It’s going on too much and people have to realise that if they do get caught, they’re going to pay,” US District Judge Robert P. Patterson said as he sentenced Hafiz Naseem for passing tips to a banker in Pakistan who made $7.8 million in illegal profits.

Michael F. Bachner, the lawyer for Hafiz Naseem, said he was surprised by the length of the sentence and vowed to appeal.

“The sentence is excessive, unnecessary to serve the interests of justice and we respectfully disagree,” he said.

US attorney’s office said that Aijaz Rahim, who used to work with Hafiz Naseem when he was in Pakistan, still remains a fugitive in Pakistan where he was accused of making the illegal trade in 2005 and 2006.

When asked whether any efforts were under way to seek extradition of Aijaz Rahim, a spokesperson for US attorney’s office declined to comment.

Prosecutors maintained that Aijaz Rahim and Hafiz Naseem once worked together in Pakistan and remained friends afterward.

They claimed that Hafiz Naseem had received $200,000 in wire transfers that appeared to be related to illegal profits, despite his claims that the money came from his father.

“A lot of people aren’t caught and should be caught,” the judge said as he also ordered Hafiz Naseem to forfeit $7.5 million.

Hafiz Naseem was convicted in February of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and 28 counts of insider trading by providing tips for up to two years while he worked in the Global Energy Group at the Manhattan offices of Credit Suisse Securities USA LLC.

The US attorney’s office had asked the court that Hafiz Naseem be awarded a sentence between eight and 10 years in prison, a recommendation that a probation officer also suggested based on federal sentencing guidelines. Judges usually levy sentences at the lower end of the guidelines.

Hafiz Naseem’s lawyers had argued that their client deserved leniency because he had never before committed a crime, because he had not received profit and because he had challenging personal circumstances that included an ill mother and a young daughter with cerebral palsy.