Former Cisco Accountants Sentenced

Two former Cisco Systems Inc. accountants were each sentenced to 34 months in prison Monday for transferring $7.8 million in company stock to their personal brokerage accounts.

Geoffrey Osowski, 30, and Wilson Tang, 35, entered guilty pleas to the computer-fraud charges in August. They faced a maximum of five years in prison for misusing Cisco’s computer system to obtain more than 230,000 shares of stock in the largest maker of computer-networking equipment.

As part of the guilty plea, Osowski and Tang handed over more than $5 million they made selling the Cisco stock, as well as jewelry and a 2001 Mercedes, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California.

The two men illegally accessed Cisco’s programs for managing stock-option disbursements and granted themselves 230,550 shares over six months starting in October 2000, according to prosecutors.