Steve Buyer

Former U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer cannot defer his surrender next month to serve a nearly two-year prison sentence resulting from his insider trading conviction because there was overwhelming evidence of his crimes, a federal judge said Monday.

A former U.S. congressman from Indiana was sentenced Tuesday to 22 months in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information while working as a consultant and lobbyist after he left office.

Federal prosecutors say a former Indiana congressman should pay nearly $1.4 million to cover the legal bills of companies forced to incur expenses when he was prosecuted on insider trading charges. But his lawyer said Thursday it’s an exorbitant amount to demand from a man already suffering financially.

Attorneys for Steve Buyer told a Manhattan federal judge Wednesday that home confinement and community service were sufficient after a jury convicted Buyer in March.