New York: US prosecutors have charged Samir Barai, an Indian-origin former hedge fund manager at Citigroup, with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the country's
biggest insider trading case.
39-year-old Barai, also founder of New York-based USD 100 million Barai Capital Management, surrendered to the FBI on Tuesday.
He has been charged with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud for his involvement in insider trading.
Three others charged along with him by prosecutors in New York are Donald Longueuil, who formerly worked as a research analyst, Ason Pflaum, a former research analyst for Barai and Noah Freeman, a portfolio manager at a fund.
Barai and Longueuil, 34, have also been charged with obstruction of justice for their efforts to destroy evidence of their involvement in insider trading after reading media reports about the FBI's investigation.
The charges are the latest in the US government's biggest insider trading probe. So far, 13 people have been arrested or charged in the investigation.
Barai is accused of trading on inside information about technology companies after receiving tips from a consultant working for expert network firm Primary Global Research.
Barai Capital was one of the hedge funds raided by US investigators in November. It has since shut down.
Prior to starting his own fund, Barai was a portfolio manager at Citigroup's USD 2 billion Tribeca Global Management, which was shut in 2008.
Longueuil was arrested at his residence in New York on Tuesday morning.
Pflaum and Freeman have pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count each of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and for their roles in the scheme.
Freeman was a managing director at Boston-based Sonar Capital Management before joining SAC Capital in mid-2008.
The US has brought insider-trading charges against more than 30 people since October 2009 as part of the probe.
A trial in the case at the centre of the investigation, against former Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan, is scheduled to begin on February 28 in New York.
The complaint unsealed on Tuesday alleged hard core insider trading in stock after stock - people blatantly trafficking in material, non-public information.
"And the lengths to which two of these defendants went to cover their tracks sounds like something out of a bad movie," Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
According to the complaint, Barai, Longueuil, Pflaum and Freeman participated in a conspiracy between 2006 and 2010 to obtain inside information, including detailed financial earnings about numerous public companies.
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