Two former New York Stock Exchange traders have been each sentenced to six months in prison after being convicted last year of making improper trades in the investigation of NYSE "specialist" traders, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

At separate hearings in federal court in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Michael Hayward and Michael Stern each to six months in prison and two years of supervised release, said the report.

The judge also ordered the men to each pay a fine of 250,000 dollars and to complete 160 hours of community service for each year of supervised release.

The two were specialists - the elite traders in charge of trading on the exchange floor - employed by Dutch stock-trading firm Van der Moolen Holdings NV's Van der Moolen Specialists USA LLC., according to the report.

Hayward and Stern were each convicted of one count of securities fraud in July for making improper trades for Van der Moolen's account at the NYSE, a unit of NYSE Group Inc. They were each acquitted of one count of conspiracy and two additional securities-fraud counts.

Source: Xinhua