The typical consequences of a criminal conviction for insider trading include fines, the loss of one’s job, and even possible prison time, but sometimes there are further repercussions. In the case of Ayal Rosenthal, who pleaded guilty to insider trading in 2007, those consequences include the denial by NYU’s Stern School of Business of a masters in business degree (MBA) for which he had completed all of the course requirements.
Rosenthal challenged NYU’s 2007 decision to refuse to grant him the MBA degree he had earned in a June 2008 lawsuit. Rosenthal alleged that NYU’s action was “unauthorized, excessive, and unfair,” and violated the university’s disciplinary rules, Reuters reports. On Monday of this week, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled against Rosenthal, finding that he was only able to complete his course requirements by concealing the criminal investigation from the school, and that, in any event, “the authority and discretion to determine whether Rosenthal was qualified to receive an MBA degree from Stern properly rested with its faculty.”

