Intel Manager Linked to Galleon Case Has Left Company

Date: Friday, January 29, 2010
Author: Ian King and Ryan Flinn, Bloomberg

Intel Corp. said Rajiv Goel, a defendant in the Galleon Group LLC insider-trading case, is no longer an employee at the chipmaker.

Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, said he can’t comment on the circumstances of Goel’s departure. Goel left the Santa Clara, California-based company before the end of last year, Mulloy said.

Goel, who was a managing director in Intel’s treasury group, was charged on Oct. 16 for passing tips to Galleon co- founder Raj Rajaratnam about a company that Intel invested in, according to a criminal complaint in federal court in Manhattan. Intel placed him on administrative leave following his arrest.

David Zornow, Goel’s lawyer, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Goel is among 21 people charged in two overlapping insider- trading cases that federal prosecutors call the biggest scheme ever involving hedge funds. At the center of the cases is Rajaratnam, who prosecutors say traded on secret tips from hedge-fund executives, traders and others.

Goel leaked news about Clearwire Corp. that he learned from investments made by Intel, and Rajaratnam earned about $579,000 in profits, prosecutors said. In return, “Rajaratnam placed profitable trades for the benefit of Goel in a personal brokerage account maintained by Goel at Charles Schwab,” prosecutors said in charging documents.

He also provided the hedge fund with details of Intel earnings reports before the company went public with its numbers, the complaint says.

Intel fell 32 cents to $19.92 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares climbed 39 percent last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net; Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net