Of the 26 defendants criminally charged in the government’s insider trading investigation centered on Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire, only one has not been convicted or pleaded guilty: Deep Shah.
Mr. Shah, a former bond analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, has been declared a fugitive and is believed to be in Mumbai.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Mr. Shah to pay the government $34.6 million related to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s insider trading lawsuit against him.
Federal authorities have accused Mr. Shah of leaking the news of two impending private equity takeovers to hedge fund traders: Hellman Friedman’s acquisition of the software company Kronos and the Blackstone Group’s purchase of Hilton Hotels. As a Moody’s analyst, Mr. Shah would get advance word of the deals so the ratings agency could update its analysis of the company’s debt.
On Tuesday, a Federal District Court judge, Jed S. Rakoff, signed a judgment that ordered Mr. Shah to pay a $24.6 million civil fines, $1.76 million of interest and forfeit $8.2 million of illegal profits. But unless the authorities can track Mr. Shah down, it will be difficult for the government to recover this money.
Mr. Shah, who is in his late 20’s, was involved in an insider trading ring led by Zvi Goffer, a former Galleon employee. A jury convicted him, his brother, Emanuel Goffer, and another hedge fund trader of earning more than $20 million in illegal profits by trading on illegal tips about upcoming mergers and acquisitions. Some of those tips came from Mr. Shah, the government says.
He is also accused of leaking the Hilton deal to Roomy Khan, a former Intel executive, who in turned passed them on to Mr. Rajaratnam. A jury found Mr. Rajaratnam guilty in May of insider trading crimes. His sentencing is set for Sept. 27.
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