Galleon scam: Anil Kumar to pay $2.8-million fine

Former director of McKinsey & Co Anil Kumar will pay a fine of $2.8 million to settle the charges filed by the US market regulator SEC against him in the multi-billion-dollar Galleon insider-trading scam.

Earlier this year, the 51-year-old Indian-origin Kumar had pleaded guilty and admitted that he had given confidential client details to Galleon hedge fund's billionaire founder Raj Rajaratnam, who is the prime accused in the same multi-billion dollar fraud. Apart from Kumar and Rajaratnam, nearly 20 others have already been charged in this scam.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said Kumar had agreed to pay a fine of $2.8 million to settle the charges against him. As per the settlement, Kumar would pay "disgorgement in the amount of $2.6 million, plus prejudgment interest of $190,621, totalling $2,790,621," SEC said in a statement.

Further, the court would decide whether Kumar is liable to pay any civil penalty. "Kumar has agreed to cooperate with the SEC in connection with this action and related probe," the regulator said.

At the time of the complaint in late 2009, Kumar was a director at global consultancy McKinsey. The complaint had accused Rajaratnam of doing unlawful trading based on inside information involving numerous companies.

"It further alleged that Kumar acquired material non-public information while working as a McKinsey consultant and passed that information to Rajaratnam, who traded on it," the statement noted.

Galleon hedge fund had billions of dollars under management at the time of the alleged insider trading.

Image: Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co director, accused of leaking information in the Galleon hedge fund insider trading case, leaves the US Federal Court in Manhattan on January 7, 2010. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters