Galleon case: Ex-McKinsey man Anil Kumar to appear in court on Thursday

Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co director accused of leaking information in the Galleon hedge fund insider trading case, will appear in court on Thursday after signaling last month that he may have reached a plea deal with US prosecutors.

The office of the US attorney and a judge's clerk said Kumar would attend a proceeding in Manhattan federal court in New York. If Kumar pleads guilty, he would be the seventh person to do so in the probe that US prosecutors describe as the biggest hedge fund insider trading case ever.                                           

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors and lawyers for seven traders and lawyers accused in the sprawling case said they had agreed to extend discussions by 21 days to Jan. 27 on resolution of their cases. All are out on bail.                                           

They include Zvi Goffer, a former proprietary trader at Schottenfeld Group in New York. The US Securities and Exchange Commission described him as "Octopussy" within the insider trading ring because of the breadth of his sources.                                           

Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam is the most prominent defendant among 21 people criminally or civilly charged in an insider trading case involving employees of some of America's best-known companies, including International Business Machines Corp, McKinsey & Co and Intel Capital, an arm of Intel Corp.                                           

Last month, Kumar agreed to waive indictment, usually an indication that a defendant has reached a deal with prosecutors that could include a guilty plea. McKinsey on Dec. 4 said Kumar had left the management consulting firm. Kumar's lawyer, Robert Morvillo, was not available to comment on Wednesday.                                           

A bail hearing previously due on Friday for Rajaratnam has been postponed until Jan. 12. Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan-born US citizen, is free on bail of $100 million, which he has asked a Manhattan federal court judge to reduce to $20 million.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said in a court memorandum that Rajaratnam faces additional charges. He pleaded not guilty following his arrest on October 16. Rajaratnam and former New Castle Funds LLC hedge fund employee Danielle Chiesi are the only two accused who have been indicted. Chiesi has also pleaded not guilty.                                           

Prosecutors said in announcements in October and November  that their investigation showed insider trading networks traded in shares of Google, Sun Microsystems, Advanced Micro Devices, Polycom, Hilton Hotels, Intel, Clearwire, Akamai, Atheros Securities and IBM, among others.                                           

Apart from Zvi Goffer, the other defendants whose cases were extended on Wednesday by three weeks are lawyers Arthur Cutillo and Jason Goldfarb; former Galleon Group employee Craig Drimal; Emanuel Goffer, who formerly worked at Spectrum Trading LLC in New York and then with Incremental Capital; Michael Kimelman who worked at Incremental Capital, and David Plate, formerly at Schottenfeld and then Incremental. 

The cases are USA v Raj Rajaratnam et al, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-01184 and USA v Zvi Goffer et al in the same court, No. 09-mj-02438. SEC v Galleon Management LP et al 09-cv-08811.