Galleon Insider Trader Close To Plea Bargain

US federal prosecutors are close to a plea bargain with another man charged in an insider trading case involving the Galleon hedge fund founded by Raj Rajaratnam, the Financial Times said.

Mark Kurland, who founded New Castle, a hedge fund, is “finalising a plea agreement”, according to court documents filed at the weekend, the newspaper said.

He is among 21 people who have now been accused in the case since the first arrests in October.

The Galleon case forms one of a number of alleged or actual cases of financial wrongdoing that have shaken the financial world since the credit crisis erupted more than two years ago. Such cases, despite specific differences in each instance, have in general fuelled calls for tighter, smarter regulation of financial services and for wealth managers to devote more care and time to due diligence checks.

Robert Moffat, a former IBM executive, was also “engaged in ongoing discussions” with prosecutors, according to the same court documents. Rajiv Goel, a former director at Intel Capital, was in a “possible disposition”. All have previously denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the three either declined or were unavailable for comment, the newspaper report said.

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