SECURITIES

Former AT&T; Exec’s Friends Sentenced for Trades: Joseph Cusimano of Joliet, Ill., and Robert Allen, 59, of Punta Gorda, Fla., pleaded guilty last year to buying securities after receiving confidential information about AT&T;’s takeover plans from their friend Charles Brumfield, a former AT&T; labor relations vice president in Morristown, N.J. U.S. District Judge John Martin Jr. in New York sentenced Cusimano to 21 months in prison and a $1-million fine and Allen (no relation to AT&T; Chairman Robert Allen) to four months and a $50,000 fine. The two men are among 17 people the government has charged with illegally buying stocks and options of four companies that were AT&T; takeover targets from 1988 to 1993.