​A U.S. judge on Tuesday accepted the guilty plea of a former stockbroker to participating in an insider trading scheme, one week after expressing concern about whether the defendant's explanation of the crime was legally sufficient. Daryl Payton, who had been a trader at Connecticut-based Euro Pacific Capital Inc, pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in federal court in New York. But U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter declined at that time to accept the plea, saying he was unsure whether Payton had adequately explained how he knew the inside tips were obtained as a result of a breach of confidentiality, a legal element of the crime. Payton was several steps removed from the original source. In court papers filed in response to Carter's concerns, prosecutors told Carter they had altered their theory of the case to narrow the conspiracy in which Payton was involved. At a brief hearing on Tuesday, Carter accepted the plea.

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Joseph Ax, Reuters