A former Intel Corp. executive who fedconfidential information to a billionaire hedge fund founder accused in amassive insider trading case earned leniency on Monday at his own sentencing.
Rajiv Goel, who gave information about the computerchipmaker to hedge fund founder and former schoolmate Raj Rajaratnam,apologized and said he was "deeply ashamed." He was sentenced by U.S.District Judge Barbara Jones to two years of probation, was fined $10,000 andwas ordered to forfeit $266,000.
Goel, 54, had faced up to 25 years in prison. He said,"I had a serious lapse of judgment and good sense."
Goel, of Los Altos, California, was a director of strategicinvestments at Intel's investment arm, Intel Capital, until he left in 2009. Headmitted supplying secret details about Intel's investments to Rajaratnam, whois serving an 11-year prison sentence after he was convicted of securitiesfraud charges for making insider trades that the government claimed earned him$75 million illegally.
Prosecutors had called the case against Rajaratnam thebiggest insider trading probe in history. It resulted in the convictions ofmore than two dozen people and led to a spinoff probe of Wall Streetresearchers who enabled corrupt public company employees to pass along insideinformation as legitimate research to hedge fund managers. The investigationalso made unprecedented use of wiretaps, allowing jurors at Rajaratnam's trialto hear dozens of taped conversations between him and co-conspirators.
Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group funds, argued thatthe tapes revealed nothing more than him doing his duty by asking questionsabout information already circulating in the "real world" of highfinance.
Goel's defense attorney, David Zornow, said his client metRajaratnam at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business inthe early 1980s and rekindled a friendship after the Sept. 11, 2001, terroristattacks. He called Rajaratnam a "master manipulator" and a"corrupter of friends" who was larger than life to Goel, who came tothe United States from India in the early 1980s to go to school.
Zornow said his client had "a unique relationship witha guy who frankly played Mr. Goel like a fiddle."
Goel admitted at Rajaratnam's trial that he gave Rajaratnam,who is from Sri Lanka, inside tips about Intel's investments and returns in2007 and 2008.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Reed Brodsky said Goel dideverything he could after his arrest to make up for his crimes, includingcontinuing to cooperate even after Rajaratnam's trial. He called Goel'stestimony "very powerful."
The judge, before she announced the fraud sentence, saidGoel "showed good sense in deciding to cooperate." She noted that twoother people who cooperated also had received probation.