McKinsey, Akamai Open Probes in Galleon Scandal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McKinsey & Co and Akamai Technologies Inc launched investigations on Wednesday into accusations by the U.S. government that some of their employees were linked to the Galleon Group insider-trading scandal.

McKinsey said it was conducting an internal probe to see if senior executive Anil Kumar, who has been charged in the case, had leaked confidential information about clients to Galleon.

Hedge fund Galleon is at the center of a federal investigation that is rocking Silicon Valley and Wall Street. McKinsey said it was cooperating with the government.

Galleon's founder Raj Rajaratnam and four others, plus Kumar, were charged on October 16 with securities fraud and conspiracy.

Advanced Micro Devices said on Wednesday that it was investigating a report that its former chief executive Hector Ruiz was linked to the Galleon scandal.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Ruiz, now chairman of AMD-affiliated spinoff Globalfoundries, a chip maker, passed on confidential information regarding the spinoff to a hedge fund manager.

Akamai, an Internet content delivery company, said it began its internal probe after federal investigators said an unnamed executive passed on information in 2008 regarding its earnings outlook to Galleon.

"We've offered our assistance to law enforcement authorities in their ongoing investigations. At this time we do not know if any of the claims made in the complaint are true," Akamai's Chief Executive Paul Sagan said after the company announced its quarterly results. This was his first public comment on the case.

"We have begun our own internal investigation. If we are able to determine that somebody in Akamai Technologies has done something wrong, we will take swift and appropriate action."

Intel said last week that it was reviewing internal policies as a result of insider-trading allegations related to the Galleon case that have been made against one of its executives.