SON BURNED BY HIS OWN FATHER

Inside-trade testimony vs. ‘traitor’ dad

A former investment banker risked taking the stand at his stock-fraud trial — and got back at his father for refusing to testify on his behalf and for accepting a deal with prosecutors.

Sean Stewart (above left) expressed his strong sense of betrayal as he told a Manhattan federal jury that he was “innocent” while his dad, Robert (above right), made insider trades behind his back after they engaged in casual conversations about investments.

“I never gave my father any information so that he could trade on it, or so that he could cause someone else to trade on that information,” he insisted.

Stewart also expressed his shock to find that his dad allegedly mined their stock discussions for market tips.

“I was confused, ashamed, taken aback,” he testified. “I wanted to know why he would do stuff that was so stupid, so foolish.”

The younger Stewart’s payback came after Robert Stewart took the Fifth when called to testify on Sean’s behalf last week.

The father even took a deal with the feds, in which he was promised a reduced sentence by admitting he committed insider trading.

The father is currently serving four years’ probation.

But the son is now facing as much as 20 years in federal prison.

Asked why he was making the legally risky move of taking the stand — a move that exposes him to a possibly brutal crossexamination by prosecutors next week — he answered, “Because I’m innocent.”

Sean, a former investment banker at Perella Weinberg and JPMorgan, was charged along with his father last year in a $1 million stock-fraud scheme involving trades on five healthcare deals between 2011 and 2014.

The father took his wrist-slap deal, then took the Fifth last week when the son’s defense team called him to the stand to testify on Sean’s behalf.

They had a close father-son bond, Sean told jurors, choking up as he read from e-mails between them.

“We are concerned out of our love for the two of you,” the dad had said in an e-mail discussing Sean’s strained marriage.

Sean also tried to convince jurors that his father had a motive to double-cross him, namely tensions over a $35,000 loan he had given his father in 2012.

Sean said it was still not paid back in full to him by the following year.

“I was very frustrated and disappointed that my dad would not give me back the money,” he testified.

Deliberations are expected to begin sometime next week.

Sean is charged with securities fraud, conspiracy and wire fraud.