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Executive charged in Galleon case leaves IBM

A high-ranking IBM executive charged with insider trading connected to the Galleon Group has left the company.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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A high-ranking IBM executive charged with insider trading connected to the Galleon Group has left the company.

Robert Moffat, a senior vice president who was once thought to be a possible future IBM chief executive candidate, had been placed on leave following charges brought by the U.S. Attorney earlier this month against him and five others.

The case revolves around Raj Rajaratnam, who founded the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund that manages $7 billion in funds. Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnamm and five others, including Moffat, with securities fraud, alleging they were involved in insider trading of well-known tech companies, including Intel, Google, AMD, and IBM.

The government alleged that Moffat discussed future IBM and Sun Microsystems earnings announcements and the reorganization of Advanced Micro Devices with Danielle Chiesi, an employee of New Castle, a hedge fund.

Moffat "is no longer an employee of IBM," according to a statement by IBM on its internal communications network.

Rod Adkins, who was named acting head of IBM's Systems and Technology Group on October 19, has been appointed senior vice president, STG, according to IBM. Adkins, 51 years old, joined IBM in 1981, and has held a variety of product development, business operations, and general management positions.

Adkins served as general manager of desktop systems at the former IBM PC company. He also was general manager for Unix systems in the Systems and Technology Group.

Kerry Lawrence, Moffat's lawyer has said Moffat was "shocked" by the charges. Alan Kaufman, Chiesi's attorney, said his client would plead innocent to the charges.