The U.S. Attorney's Office announced on Friday that a former senior manager at software giant Microsoft Inc has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to insider trading.

Brian Jorgenson, 32, a married father of four from the north Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, pleaded guilty to feeding inside information to a stock trader, generating US$415,000 for three occasions of insider trading.

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The codefendant, Sean Stokke, was sentenced in July to 18 months in jail.

Documents filed in U.S. District Court showed that Jorgenson, who was senior manager in Microsoft Corp's Treasury Group when the insider trading was committed, provided information to his friend, Stokke.

On Friday, Jorgenson admitted he cheated.

"I cheated... I tried to take a shortcut for my own financial gain ... I persuaded myself it was a gray area, when it clearly was black and white," he said.

Court records show Jorgenson shared quarterly earnings reports and Microsoft's 2012 investment in Barnes & Noble Inc. before these were even made public and submitted to the stock exchange.

As senior manager in the company's Treasury Group, Jorgenson had access to sensitive financial information, investment plans, and other corporate matters before these are even announced publicly

An investigation launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that the two defendants accumulated Barnes & Noble stock options in advance of Microsoft's announcement that it was investing in the company's digital book business.

Jorgenson told Stokke they will have to buy Barnes & Noble stocks because Microsoft was set to announce the investment.

In the world of stocks trading, news about investments or capital injection is sure to generate investors' interest, resulting to a spike in the recipient company's stocks.

Indeed, when Microsoft's investment was announced, Barnes & Noble's stock jumped to almost 50 percent, and the two, who bought stocks before the price soared, earned US$184,000, the FBI said.

Microsoft earlier said it has no tolerance to insider trading and has helped the government during the entire duration of the investigation.

Jorgenson, who joined Microsoft in January 2011, was terminated when the investigation was launched.

Tagsinsider trading