Recent Insider Trading Scandal Reeks of Tech Management Involvement
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If you haven't read about the fascinating tale of alleged insider trading by Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, IBM Senior Vice President Robert Moffatt, Rajiv Goel from Intel Capital and others that recently erupted out of Wall Street, you have missed a fairly elaborate scheme between hedge fund managers and technology management insiders, according to the Department of Justice. Technology companies with stock that was affected by the insider trading included IBM, Sun Microsystems, Google, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Clearwire, Akamai, Polycom and PeopleSupport. The DOJ indicated that at the root of this scandal for some parties was the desire for a good, new job in exchange for information about business deals and other earnings-related information that allowed a few hedge fund managers to reap a boatload of money. The government was listening via wiretap, said reports by the SEC . The NY Times wrote on Goel of Intel Capital's motivation:
The NY Times also reported on another alleged hedge fund assailant that may have helped both of them rake in the dough:
The Google information came from an unnamed source who worked for the company handling Google's investor relations, according to court documents the NY Times published. Another mystery in the legal documents is an unnamed Akamai executive who allegedly gave information to Chiesi that was later traded on. From the court documents filed, here is a sliver of the kind of information discovered through the wiretap (from July 24, 2008, Chiesi telling Rajaratnam about what the Akamai executive said):
Both Chiesi and Rajaratnam proceeded to short Akamai stock before the lowered earnings expectations were announced, which reportedly made them serious bank. A number of participants are expected to have made deals with the government for lesser criminal deals for their participation in the investigation. |
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Comments (2)
IBM CEO SEARCH COMMITTEE -- SPRING 2010
MOFFAT - OUT.
PALMISANO - OUT ???
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Posted by Madame P J Bailey | October 27, 2009 11:39 AM
HHmmm screwing with the financial systems are they. Well America guess those american IT workers you either fired or let go to replace with a cost saving initiative is really starting to come back at you. Makes me wonder how far the corruption really got to. Wondre if the FBI is digging real deep in those data bases for all the good stuff.
Posted by John Doe | October 27, 2009 1:49 PM