BATON ROUGE - Two of three people convicted of insider trading involving the 2012 merger of a Baton Rouge-based company have been given prison sentences.

According to a release from the Department of Justice, Salvador Russo III was dating an employee at the Shaw Group, Kelly Liu, in July 2012 when the company agreed to a merger with Chicago-based construction company CB&I.

The DOJ says Liu used her position to get inside information on the merger ahead of its announcement, which would greatly increase Shaw's stock prices. Liu allegedly passed this info on to two others, Russo and Victory Ho, so that the two may buy up Shaw stocks and then sell them off for an inflated price after the merger.

Ho, a Morgan City businessman and an associate of Russo, reportedly made about $300,000 off the scheme. Russo, formerly a Baton Rouge car salesman, profited about $4,000.

During the sentencing hearing, the court also found that Russo had obstructed justice through his testimony at the trial.

Russo was sentenced to 16 months in prison and one year of supervised release after his imprisonment. Ho was sentenced to 32 months in prison and additionally ordered to forfeit $300,000, along with a $15,000 fine.