More alleged insider trading

In a shock report today the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has alleged that former AMD chairman Hector Ruiz has been involved in alleged insider trading.

Note I am using the word alleged a lot.

Although the matter is currently under investigation, this is the second insider trading scandal to hit the industry the past fortnight following IBM's Robert Moffat and his links with a $20m insider trading case.

Six employees of hedge-fund firm Galleon Group, including the co-founder, have now been charged with a complicated insider trading scam which has caused the fund to be wound up.

Documents released this month pointed to an AMD executive being involved, but until the WSJ broke its silence and linked Ruiz to the case, no names had been mentioned.

It is alleged that the AMD executive spoke to Galleon staff last year, before the announcement that AMD was spinning off its chip division into a separate company. Galleon bought shares before the announcement of the spinoff was made but investigators say the fund lost money on the deal because of a falling stock market.

The case continues - but it does make me wonder why these high profile people would get involved in such an incident - surely the risk just isn't worth it?

It will be interesting to see what happens.