A former Credit Suisse investment banker convicted in a multimillion-dollar insider trading plot should receive minimal jail time at sentencing this week rather than the “extremely severe” eight years or more recommended by a probation officer, his lawyers say.

Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for his conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and 28 counts of insider trading.

In court papers submitted late Friday, lawyers for the Pakistan native complained that a probation officer had recommended a prison sentence of between 8 and 10 years for the man.

The lawyers asked Judge Robert Patterson to “impose a fairer sentence than the extremely severe one suggested by the Probation Office.” It said a sentence of eight years or more “would be unduly harsh in a case where the defendant received no financial gain and where his prolonged absence would devastate a family.”

Naseem was charged last year when authorities said his tips to Ajaz Rahim, who was the head of investment banking at Faysal Bank in Pakistan, enabled Rahim to make more than $7 million in profits.