A lead prosecutor in the Galleon Group hedge fund investigation is planning to depart the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office next week to start his own law firm, The New York Times DealBook blog reported today.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in November announced the arrests of 14 people in an alleged insider trading ring around hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam. (Getty Images)
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua I. Klein, a 10-year veteran of the Manhattan office, is handling the case against Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund who was charged last year in an alleged far-ranging insider trading scheme that the government says brought him more than $33 million in illicit profits. Rajaratnam was listed third on Forbes’s list of the “Biggest CEO Outrages of 2009.”
Guy Petrillo, a former Southern District criminal division chief, who recently worked at the law firm Dechert, will join Klein in the venture, according to the DealBook
Legal experts told the blog the move is “surprising” because of high-profile nature of the ongoing Galleon case. But they said Klein’s departure may have been in the works for some time.
Klein and the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment to the DealBook. Petrillo could not be immediately reached by the NYT blog for comment.
