Washington, July 20 (ANI): A former Indian American McKinsey and Co. director was sentenced to two years of probation after he helped the government to convict a pair of Wall Street titans on insider trading charges.
An ex-financial consultant-turned-government witness, Anil Kumar, had pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other charges and agreed to cooperate in the investigation of disgraced hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam and former Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta.
Gupta, 63, had been accused of insider-trading charges and leaking Goldman secrets that helped Rajaratnam, who was his friend.
The prosecutors of the case found the former McKinsey and Co. director had earned leniency with his willingness to come clean about his misdeeds.
"Kumar's significant, powerful, and timely cooperation has provided substantial assistance to the Government in the investigation and prosecution of two of the most high-profile defendants convicted of illegal insider trading in history," the New York Post quoted the prosecutor, as saying.
Kumar will also have to forfeit 2.26 million dollars, the report said.
In a trial last year, Kumar had testified that Rajaratnam, his former business school classmate and billionaire founder of the Galleon hedge fund firm, broke the law by speaking regularly about the negotiations over the acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc. with Kumar's client, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., before the deal was announced.
Rajaratnam reportedly raked in over 20 million dollars by trading on the inside tip about the ATI-AMD deal.
The government used Kumar's testimony to undermine defense claims that Gupta had no financial stake in Rajaratnam's business ventures, as Kumar described a 2007 meeting that he had with Gupta and Rajaratnam during which they discussed starting an investment firm called Galleon Global Group.
Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison term, while Gupta is still awaiting sentencing. (ANI)
