The New York Times reported that the SEC accused the group of earning more than $20 million from illegal trading in companies like Google, Akamai and Hilton Hotels over nearly three years. The paper cites officials who say Rajaratnam is alleged to have had a huge network of informants who fed him tips for cash or in some cases for other insider information.
One example is Intel's Rajiv Goel. According to the New York Times, Goel told Mr. Rajaratnam that he was tired of working at Intel and would trade information about a potential investment in Clearwire for a job with one of Mr. Rajaratnam’s “powerful friends.” Mr. Rajaratnam went on to make a profit of $579,000 from trading in Clearwire stock.
Danielle Chiesi, a former Bear Stearns executive who worked at another hedge fund, New Castle Partners, is said to be one of the main conspirators and was among those arrested earlier this month. Bloomberg today cites a person familiar with the investigation who says Hector Ruiz is the unnamed AMD exec alleged to have provided Chiesi with information. This included details about the timing of the spinoff of AMD's manufacturing operations into a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi government, a business we now know to be AMD's Globalfoundries.
More on this Wall Street scandal as things develop. For now you can fill yourself in on all the nitty gritty details by checking out the full scoops on both New York Times and Bloomberg.
