Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio has been indicted on 42 counts of insdider trading. He surrendered to the Denver FBI early this morning. There will be a court appearance sometime today. Prosecutors will hold a press conference at noon.

The government has alleged in both civil and criminal cases that Qwest and some of its former executives participated in a massive financial fraud between April 1999 and March 2002 by falsely reporting sales or trades of capacity on its fiber-optic cables as recurring revenue. Nacchio resigned in June 2002 and has always said he did nothing improper. The fraud allowed Qwest to improperly report approximately $3 billion in revenue that eased its 2000 acquisition of regional phone company U S West Inc., the government has said. Qwest later restated earnings from 2000 and 2001 to erase about $2.2 billion in revenue.