Hedge fund manager Samir Barai under US govt scanner: Report

Date: Monday, January 31, 2011
Author: Economic Times

Samir Barai , the founder of New York-based Barai Capital Management and a former hedge-fund manager at Citigroup, has been drawn into the government's insider-trading investigation as a co-conspirator in a case, says a media report.

Attributing to people familiar with the matter, the 'Wall Street Journal' reported that Barai, 39, has been drawn into the government's insider-trading investigation as a co- conspirator in the case, and his firm has been raided by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents (FBI) agents.

Prosecutors have not disclosed any charges of wrongdoing against Barai in the still-unfolding investigation, the report noted.

FBI agents raided his fund in November, the report said adding that the fund's identity has not been made public earlier.

The development broadens the known scope of a burgeoning criminal probe because it marks the first time a hedge-fund manager has been publicly revealed as a co-conspirator in the case.

The investigation is examining whether hedge funds and other investors traded on inside information received from corporate employees freelancing as consultants for "expert- network firms," the report added.

The report said that Barai made his name at Citigroup in a high-profile hedge-fund position and he used that affiliation to help market his own fund, the report said citing sources.

His role in the investigation involves conversations and trading that took place after Barai left Citigroup in 2007, and there is no indication the bank is implicated in the probe.

Barai launched his hedge fund in 2008 after leaving Citigroup's hedge-fund unit. At Citigroup, he ran a technology, media and telecommunications stock portfolio.

According to the publication, Barai, did not return calls for comment, while the FBI and Manhattan US Attorney's office declined to comment.