Galleon

A former senior IBM executive pleaded guilty on Monday to securities fraud in a case that has also reached the executive ranks at high-tech giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

Robert Moffat, once thought to be a candidate for chief executive at IBM, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud at a Manhattan federal court, according to the Associated Press. He will face up to six months in prison, based on federal sentencing guidelines.

Moffat, 53, provided confidential information about a reorganization at chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, among other confidential … Read more

A former Intel executive pleaded guilty on Monday to providing insider information to Galleon Group's founder, Raj Rajaratnam.

The case revolves around Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that managed $7 billion in funds. In total, 22 people have been charged with criminal or civil charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ten, including the Intel executive, have pleaded guilty to date.

Rajiv Goel, a former Intel treasury department executive, has admitted to providing Rajaratnam, in 2007, details about Intel's earnings before the information was publicly available. He also told Rajaratnam … Read more

Hector Ruiz, chairman of Advanced Micro Devices spin-off Globalfoundries, will resign from the company in January. The announcement follows the emergence of his name in connection to the Galleon Funds insider trading case.

Ruiz "will take a voluntary leave of absence effective immediately before resigning from the company in January," according to a statement Monday from the Globalfoundries board. Ruiz had submitted his resignation to the board in September with an effective date of January 4, 2010, the statement said.

The resignation comes after an unnamed executive at AMD--which turned out to be Ruiz, according to a report… Read more

A high-ranking IBM executive charged with insider trading connected to the Galleon Group has left the company.

Robert Moffat, a senior vice president who was once thought to be a possible future IBM chief executive candidate, had been placed on leave following charges brought by the U.S. Attorney earlier this month against him and five others.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnamm and five others, including Moffat, with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of well-known … Read more

commentary Hector Ruiz was quick to display righteous indignation about Intel's alleged unscrupulous business practices. Now--in one of life's delicious ironies--he's a central figure in the biggest scandal to hit Silicon Valley in years.

In a letter from Ruiz that still sits on AMD's Web site and is still signed above the title "Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board Advanced Micro Devices," he rails against Intel for "breaking the law." And on another Web page bearing his photograph, there are more accusations leveled at Intel for its alleged "illegal&… Read more

The former CEO and chairman of Advanced Micro Devices, Hector Ruiz, has been linked to the Galleon insider-trading case, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

This revelation comes after an unnamed executive at AMD was cited repeatedly in a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District earlier this month.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnam and five others with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of … Read more

Updated on October 23 at 3:00 p.m. PDT: with additional information identifying the person who is talking to the "AMD executive" and additional statements.

An unnamed executive at Advanced Micro Devices is cited repeatedly in the Galleon Funds insider-trading case, presenting a potentially awkward situation for the chipmaker as the case goes forward.

It's not clear if the AMD executive cited in the U.S. Attorney's complaint would be charged or even implicated by name, but government charges of insider trading have rattled Silicon Valley. Rajiv Goel, a managing director of strategic investments for Intel's treasury group, was arrested and charged in the case and put on leave, forcing Intel CEO Paul Otellini to publicly address the case.

And a high-level executive at IBM, senior vice president Robert Moffat, was placed on leave Monday after he was charged. Moffat is accused of supplying details about IBM and Sun Microsystems earnings to Danielle Chiesi, who worked for the New Castle hedge fund.

"If it's the top two (executives at AMD), that would be significant. But it could be anyone. Mid-level executives. We don't know," said David Wu, an analyst at GC Research.

"We are currently reviewing the situation and we have no further comment," AMD spokesman Michael Silverman said.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnam and five others on Friday with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of well-known tech companies, including Intel, Google, AMD, and IBM.

In the wake of the allegations, the Galleon Group said it will close, though the firm is exploring alternatives for its business that could allow parts of the hedge fund to survive, according to the Wall Street Journal.

AMD was prominent in the complaint, filed by the U.S. Attorney… Read more

Updated on October 21 at 7:25 p.m. PDT: correcting, at bottom, for what the U.S. Attorney's office describes as "CC-1."

Think of it as a twist on the old rivalry between chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. But this time, the rivalry is about which company can make a hedge fund more money.

The complaint filed by the government against six people on Friday details how a relatively obscure Intel treasury executive and a prominent hedge fund manager allegedly participated in an insider-trading ring centered on an Intel investment. The document also shows alleged insider trading of AMD shares by an adviser from McKinsey & Company before the chipmaker spun off of its manufacturing operations.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnam and five others on Friday with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of some of the most well-known tech companies including Intel, Google, AMD, and IBM.

Jim Walden, a lawyer for Rajaratnam, said Friday, "My client is innocent and we are going to fight the charges," according to The New York Times.

Rajaratnam, a native of Sri Lanka, got his start as a semiconductor analyst at investment-banking firm Needham & Co. and parlayed this into the Galleon Group, where he had a reputation for particularly aggressive information-gathering tactics.

And one of his contacts was Rajiv Goel, a managing director of strategic investments for Intel's treasury group and one of the six defendants.

Goel is not well known inside--or outside--of Intel. In fact, he is an Intel executive apparently so obscure that CEO Paul Otellini said in a television interview Monday that he'd never even heard of him--yet somebody who has dragged the chipmaker into the biggest insider-trading scandal to hit Silicon Valley in years. When asked about the case in an interview with Fox Business News Monday, Otellini said his first reaction was, "'Who's Rajiv Goel'--I'd never heard of this guy," the CEO said, according to a Fox transcript. "He's a fairly low-level guy." Otellini added: "People are people. I don't want to judge him. He hasn't been arrested. I think he's only been charged. If this is true, he's out."

Goel was, in fact, arrested on Friday in San Jose, Calif.… Read more

Federal prosecutors have charged a prominent hedge-fund manager and five others with securities fraud resulting from insider trading involving some of the tech industry's best-known companies, including Intel, Google, and IBM.

Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group was arrested Friday in New York according to various reports and charged with 13 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy following a FBI investigation into Galleon Group's trading patterns. Also charged in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, were co-conspirators Rajiv Goel of Intel and Anil Kumar of McKinsey, which provided consulting services … Read more