Kumar Pleads Guilty in Galleon Hedge Fund Case

New York - Former senior partner at McKinsey & Co., Anil Kumar, yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy, insider trading and securities fraud in the Galleon/Raj Rajaratnam hedge fund fraud case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The prosecution alledged, before US District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattanthat, that Rajaratnam paid Kumar up to $1 million a year for his inside tips, making the hedge fund over $19 million. Kumar, 51, of Saratoga, Calif., is cooperating with prosecutors. He will be sentenced on March 26.

The investigation started with suspicions in the 1990s when chip maker Intel Corp alleged that Rajaratnam was receiving tips from an Intel insider. The investigation was based on a witness who had first entered into a plea agreement with the United States before she began to cooperate in an investigation into Rajaratnam’s practices.

Rajaratnam was taken into custody in New York on Oct. 16, 2009 in the USA’s largest hedge fund insider-trading scheme. His bail was set at $100 million.

The insider trading case involves the employees of some of America’s best-known companies, including International Business Machines Corp, McKinsey & Co and Intel Capital, an arm of Intel Corp.